Clinical victory sends Mohsin to division one final

Mubarak Mohsin hit the ball "hard and low" at the Rotana Beach hotel to beat Ziad Onabba in the Fugra Abu Dhabi Open semi-finals.

ABU DHABI // Mubarak Mohsin hit the ball "hard and low" at the Rotana Beach hotel yesterday to beat Ziad Onabba 15-1, 15-6, 15-5 in the Fugra Abu Dhabi Open semi-finals. The 16-year-old is now just one match away from clinching his first division one silverware. But for that, he will have to beat Mohsen el Gezery, who overcame Harold Shim 15-10, 15-7, 15-7, in the other last-four match.

Mohsin, who was clinical throughout the match, said later: "Ziad was picking up everything so I kept my shots hard and low to kill the rallies. "He was fit and was running all over the court. The scoreline doesn't say the actual story but it was a very hard match." Determined to add his name to the list of title-winners, the top seed said: "I want to go and do bigger things and winning my first division one Abu Dhabi title will fulfill one of those ambitions.

"It is a trophy that has been won by my senior colleagues Adil Maqbool [the UAE champion] and Aamir Khan [the Abu Dhabi No 1], and I would like to follow in their footsteps." Mohsin also tasted success in the super division when he beat Mohsin Musa, his coach and father, in straight games in the play-off for third. Meanwhile El Gezery showed he still has the shots and court craft, which once took him to 24 in the world rankings in the 1980s, when the Egyptian reached his second final after a 3-0 defeat of Jamal Boshor in the veterans over 45 on Wednesday.

Akram Chalich went the full distance before claiming the final game and match 15-12 against Mabrouk al Nahdy, the chairman of the Abu Dhabi Squash Racquets Association. Chalich will meet Moataz Deeb, who got the better of Mark Griffin 3-1, in the division two final. In the division three final, Riyaz Attari cruised to a straight game win over Alan Ellerbank. @Email:[e-mail]