QSF 3: Eain Yow and Al Tamimi Cruise into Semi-Finals

Top seeds Eain Yow Ng and Abdulla Mohd Al Tamimi remain on a collision course for the QSF 3 final, after both winning their quarter-finals matches in Doha. 

No.1 seed Eain Yow had needed four games to get past Kuwaiti veteran Abdullah Almezayen in round two, but made far lighter work of Perry Malik in the last eight, needing just 31 minutes to see off his English opponent. 

He will play India’s Velavan Senthilkumar in the semi-finals, after the World No.75 knocked out Aly Hussein 3-0, dropping just 12 points along the way. 

Senthilkumar is ranked 55 places below Eain Yow but knows how to win a semi-final. 

The 25-year-old has reached the final of his last three tournaments – albeit against much lower-ranked players than Eain Yow – going on to win one of those three finals, the Jansher Khan Canberra Open. 

In the bottom half of the draw, defending champion Al Tamimi eased past Toufik Mekhalfi to book his spot in the final four, denying Sebastien Bonmalais an all-French semi-final. 

Bonmalais had secured his passage through the quarter-finals earlier in the day, knocking out Egypt’s Zahed Salem in a four-game match that lasted almost an hour. 

That was a stark contrast to Al Tamimi’s win over Mekhalfi, which took just 29 minutes. 

The home favourite, playing on a court he knows so well, needed only nine minutes to win game one and just seven to win game two, before winning six straight points from 5-5 in the third to close out the victory. 

Results: Quarter-Finals

[1] Eain Yow Ng (MAS) bt Perry Malik (ENG) 3-0: 11-4, 11-7, 11-5 (31m)
Velavan Senthilkumar (IND) bt Aly Hussein (EGY) 11-2, 11-2, 11-8 (40m)
[3] Sebastien Bonmalais (FRA) bt Zahed Salem (EGY) 11-6, 11-9, 8-11, 11-9 (56m)
[2] Abdulla Mohd Al Tamimi (QAT) bt Toufik Mekhalfi (FRA) 3-0: 11-6, 11-2, 11-5 (30m)

Draw: Semi-Finals

[1] Eain Yow Ng (MAS) v Velavan Senthilkumar (IND)
[3] Sebastien Bonmalais (FRA) v [2] Abdulla Mohd Al Tamimi (QAT)