Oman tennis: Fatma Al Nabhani eases into the final at Arab Tennis Championships

Muscat: Oman are assured of at least one medal at the ongoing Arab Tennis Championship as Fatma Al Nabhani eased into the women’s singles final in Rabat, Morocco on Wednesday.
On a rain-affected day, the top-seeded Omani had to brave the elements before defeating local girl Lamia Aziz in a rather one-sided semifinal encounter.
Fatma’s experience of playing in three $10,000 ITF Pro Circuit tournaments in the country, including one in Rabat just prior to the Arab championships, came in handy as the Omani star simply overwhelmed Lamia for a 6-1, 6-0 victory.
On Tuesday, Fatma produced a similar dominant display in a 6-0, 6-1 win over another Moroccan Lilia Hadab in the second round.
Fatma can fetch Oman a gold medal if she manages to stamp her authority in the final, where she is scheduled to take on Tunisia’s Chiraz El Bechri.
Second seeded Chiraz advanced to the summit clash after overcoming Morocco’s Diae El Jardi 6-4, 6-4 in a closely-contested match.
Meanwhile, the men’s and women’s doubles matches involving Oman players were hit by rain for the second consecutive day.
In the women’s doubles, Fatma and Sara were scheduled to play Tunisians Chiraz El Bechri and Mouna Bouzgarou while in the men’s doubles, Younis Al Rawahi and Abdullah Al Barwani were to have faced Kuwaiti duo of Abdullah Maqdes and Mohammed Ghareeb.
Both the matches, weather permitting, will now be played on Thursday.