[13] Olli Tuominen (FIN) bt Abdullah Almezayen (KUW)11/9, 11/2, 9/11, 11/7 (50m)
24/4/2008
It’s always such a difficult task to be the wild card. Here you are, you’ve got to perform at your best, in front of your home crowd, your family, your friends, and I guess there are some people who can’t wait to see you fail. Well, tonight, all will be full with admiration for young Abdullah Almezayen, and with reason. This boy, who doesn’t get many chances to play on the World Circuit, and therefore doesn’t get the experience he needs to climb up in the ranking, gave us a super performance, forcing Olli to play an extra game… Yes, of course, Olli was never going to lose the match, and yes, we could see Abdullah's weaknesses, his movement for example, a bit slow to come back on the T, but he is so strong and fast physically, picking up an awful lot of Olli’s superb attacks, and also gifted with a superb lobbing that sent the Finn way back there so many times. Such a rare shot in the young players… Sign of maturity. Honestly, as a reporter, you always dread “wild card matches”. But already two years ago, I saw that boy play against David Palmer, and had been impressed with him. Well the work he’s been doing with Rahmat Khan - who used to coach Jahangir, then the Pakistan Juniors, and who now works in Kuwait – is paying off. And my opinion has changed of Abdullah. He is gifted, and with the work and experience on the world tour, he could become an excellent player indeed.

Abdullah Almezayen
"Olli controlled the game, I was doing my best to keep him at the back, but he was too fast at the front. Still, it was a good experience for me, hopefully, I’ll play better next time."

Rehmat Khan

"He played very well, he lacks match practice, but he fought very well. He needs to compete in more tournaments, get more matches, and he would come up…"

Olli Tuominen
"A few months back, I saw him play in a world event against our boys, he was playing number three at the time, and he won 3/1 I think. So, I knew he was a good junior. "He played very well, he is very gifted with a racquet, and he is pretty quick too, and we had a very good game, although I was not at my best! I guess I should have been able to push at the front a bit more. "But I guess it gave me an extra game on court, which in view of tomorrow, and my match against Greg, may not a bad thing…"