JEDDAH: Friday’s championship of the Gold’s Gym Grand’s Open Squash Tournament featured a match between Egyptian Hatim Al-Saaed and Saudi Tariq Shaheen. The Saudi player won in four sets to claim the title.
The well attended tournament had 30 players over the three-day period. Thirty two games were played to determine the champion. Official sponsor Prince Turki bin Tammer bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, Gold’s Gym’s CEO Makareem Baterjee, and sponsor Salem Bugshan (Gator Aid, Pepsi) attended the exciting final.
Before a jampacked crowd Shaheen won the first set 9 to 1 in the best-of-five contest. Al-Saaed took the second stanza by the smallest of margins10-9. Shaheen began to dominate in the third set winning 9-6 and took the fourth 9 to 1 to take the championship trophy of the inaugural squash tourney at Gold’s Gym.
Squash has been on the rise over the last few years in the Middle East and the level of play has increased. Gold’s Gym is in the process of introducing its Squash Academy to train young people and produce excellent tournament players.
