Sport | Tennis
Morocco's Arazi steals limelight
The tennis championship kicked-off as part of the events of the 12th Open Sports Festival of the Armed Forces Officers Club.
- Staff Report
- Published: 00:30 September 12, 2008
- Soccer players take part in the 12th Open Sports Festival at the Armed Forces Officers Club in Abu Dhabi.
- Image Credit: Ahmed Kutty/Gulf News
Abu Dhabi: The tennis championship kicked-off as part of the events of the 12th Open Sports Festival of the Armed Forces Officers Club.
Dr. Ali bin Abdullah Al-Ka'abi, Board Chairman of the UAE Red Crescent Authority, inaugurated the event which is being held under the auspices of Shaikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Presidential Affairs.
A number of international tennis stars including 35-year-old Hisham Arazi of Morocco, who once occupied the 22nd position on the world tennis ranking, are competing.
In the opening match, Arazi, who is the top seed, defeated his Qatari opponent, Abdullah Haji 2-0 to move into the second round. Second seeded Julmar of France defeated his compatriot Julin Mese 2-1, while Karim Mamoon of Egypt beat Essam Jalali of Tunisia 2-0.
In other matches Mohammad Mamoon of Egypt lost 2-0 to Marco of Switzerland and John Ortgen of Sweden beat Wasil Hared of Algeria 2-0.
In the men's double event Arazi teamed up with Julmar to beat Jalali and Akhwan 2-0.
In other matches Mohammed Mamoon and his brother Karim lost 2-0 to Mohammad Al-Ghareb (Kuwait) and John (Sweden), while Marco (Switzerland) and Klek (Slovakia) defeated Sharif Sabri (Egypt and Cheikh Rabea (Morocco) 2-0.
The amateur snooker championship is closely contested as eight contestants sailed through to the second round. They include UAE trios, Salim Al-Jenaibi, Ahmad Saleh and Mohammad Abdullah, Bahrain's Ahmad Ghulum, and Egypt's Wael Yusuf and Hani Hosni, as well as Fares Bashar of Syria and Shabeer Hussein of Pakistan.
The eight players will battle it out for a total cash prize of Dhs 93,000.
In women's volleyball Spike Force of Philippines registered its first win in the championship beating Oman national team 25/13, 25/8. In the second clash of the evening, Horse of Egypt defeated Al Ahli of Dubai 25-16, 25-14 to top the table with six points from three matches.
As the men's and youth Under-20 chess championship draws to a close Basim Amin of Egypt jumped to the top of the table with seven points after defeating Chess Master Kotsor who had been enjoying the lead on the table from the beginning.
Severly Al Taj of Azerbaijan also defeated his compatriot Ibrahimov Rasool.
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