Q Tour Glory for Ali Gharahgozlou
Iran’s Ali Gharahgozlou defeated fellow countryman Amin Sanjael 4-1 in the final of the second WPBSA Q Tour Middle East event in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.
Victory sees the Iranian cueist move up to second in the Q Tour Middle East ranking list, behind only event one winner Habib Subah Humood, with one event remaining.
The top two ranked players at the conclusion of the third and final event in Saudi Arabia will earn a place at the Q Tour Global play-offs, where they will be hoping to follow in the footsteps of last season’s qualifiers Mohamed Shehab and Amir Sarkhosh by securing one of the three World Snooker Tour (WST) two-year tour cards on offer.
Eleven nations were represented at the Emirates Snooker Academy in Abu Dhabi with a total of 56 cueists aiming for the title in the three-day competition.
Gharahgozlou, who came within two frames of earning professional status at the 2024 Asia-Oceania Q School before losing out to Sunny Akani in the final round, dominated his way to the semi-finals with the loss of just a single frame in four matches.
In the last four he met Qatar’s Ali Alobaidli, who had ended the run of event one champion Humood in the previous round by a 4-1 scoreline.
The Iranian continued his relentless run, however, to whitewash Alobaidli with a high break of 66 and set up a final meeting with fellow countryman Sanjael.
Sanjael had been similarly impressive in reaching the latter stages of the tournament, dropping just a single frame en route to the last four, but then had to show battling qualities to overcome a stern test against Egypt’s Omar Ramy – getting over the line in a deciding frame.
Gharahgozlou looked the stronger of the two Iranian’s in the title match as he quickly moved into a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven frame contest.
His opponent briefly rallied to reduce his deficit, but Gharahgozlou showed his class by firing in the tournament high break of 128 in the fifth frame to get over the line 4-1 and secure the title.
The final event of the WPBSA Q Tour Middle East series will take place in Saudi Arabia later in the year. Date and venue information will be released in due course. Learn more about the 2024/25 WPBSA Q Tour Middle East series.
