The action was taking place on the purpose-built all-glass court inside Cape Town’s Western Province Cricket Club, 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.
Qatar’s Al-Tamimi recorded a first career win over 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 Saturday.
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, with the Qatari player showing no signs of his injury affecting his game.
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, as 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 as well, though, as he reeled off seven points out of 8 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,” he said on court moments after victory.
“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.”
It was 21-year-old Heikal who made the better start to the women’s showdown, attacking at every opportunity on her way to a 9-6 lead.
She was, however, unable to convert that advantage into a one-game lead, with 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.
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