Alves & Al-Tamimi Win Inaugural Cape Town Open Crowns

Top seeds Melissa Alves and Abdulla Al-Tamimi have won the 2024 Cape Town Open titles, beating Nour Heikal and Declan James in the finals of the inaugural PSA World Tour Copper event in South Africa.

The action was taking place on the purpose-built all-glass court at the Western Province Cricket Club in Cape Town, with the spectacular Table Mountain providing a backdrop to rival any in world sport.

All eyes were firmly on the inside of the court on finals day, though, with fans queueing to get in just moments before play started, and every seat in the grandstand filled once it did.

It was the 21-year-old Egyptian Heikal who made the better start to the women's showdown, attacking at every opportunity on her way to a 9-6 lead.

However, the No.7 seed was unable to convert that advantage into a one-game lead, with French favourite Alves quickly erasing the deficit before taking the tiebreak that followed.

The French No.1 was quickly 5-0 up in game two, as Heikal found the tin on a number of occasions, and 5-0 soon became 11-5, and a two-game lead for Alves.

The difference in style was notable throughout the first two games, with Alves adopting a patient approach, waiting for the errors to come from her opponent's racket.

Unsurprisingly, given Heikal's aggressive game, that resulted in some highlight-reel winners for the young Egyptian, but ultimately Alves' approach paid off, as Heikal slammed a forehand into the tin on match ball.

"I came here as the No.1 seed so obviously I wanted to win this tournament," said Alves after claiming the 10th Tour title of her career. "That was the goal with my team, with my coaches, we talked about this one, and I'm happy.

"It doesn't matter how you do it, as long as you get the win, and I think today I played pretty well.

Alves' victory was followed by success in the men's competition for Qatar's Al-Tamimi, who recorded a first career win over Englishman James at the fifth time of asking.

The No.1 seed suffered a cut to the head in his semi-final win over Karim El Hammamy, and sported a small plaster below his trademark headband from the off today.

The crowd inside the sports hall - usually home to the indoor cricket nets - at Western Province Cricket Club were treated to a thrilling opening game, too, as Al-Tamimi and James went toe-to-toe over more than 15 minutes of action.

James had two games balls at 10-8 and another at 13-12, but ultimately fell short of taking the lead, losing the tiebreak 15-13, with Al-Tamimi showing no signs of being affected by his injury.

The two players showcased somewhat contrasting styles, with the diminutive Al-Tamimi attacking the front of the court, while James displayed his usual consistency to the corners.

It was Al-Tamimi's approach that came out in top of game two, though, as he reeled off seven points out of eight to move from 4-4 to 11-5, and he carried that momentum into game three, dragging James around the court with a combination of deft touches and impressive speed.

James kept fighting until the end but Al-Tamimi would prove too strong on the day, raising his arms aloft as James failed to reach a forehand drop on match balls.

Victory for Al-Tamimi secures him an 11th PSA Squash Tour title and his first outside of Qatar since 2022, and speaking after his win, he revealed how he felt after keeping his composure with the lead.

"I feel relief, to be honest," said the Qatari. "You have no idea the amount of things going through my head when I have even a one-point lead, imagine four or five.

"I knew Dec gets a lot of balls back. You think he's far from the ball, but he's got that reach so it makes you think that you have to take him short again, which I did a lot of the time, but I knew I had to push it deep again then short again.

"That's what I've been working on, to get the guy tired towards the end of the match, to sneak the mistakes from them instead of the other way around."