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25-Apr-08:
Champion Gaultier treating British Open defence as a first time ...
Defending champion
Gregory Gaultier will
arrive in
Liverpool next
month preparing to win the men's title in the
Dunlop British Open Squash
Championships as if it
was his first time!
The longest-established and most prestigious event in world squash,
the Dunlop British Open -
Liverpool 2008
will be staged at the
city's new
ECHO Arena
Liverpool from 10-12
May, following qualifying and early rounds at the
Liverpool Cricket Club
from 6 May.
In some ways it seemed typical that the Frenchman had not thought
much about the psychology of defending the sport's most prestigious
title.
Yet the world No3 from
Aix-en-Provence will
approach this year's championships knowing better than anyone that
mind games influence the destiny of major titles - so blanking it
may have been skilful too.
Gaultier
thought intently about winning the World Open
and twice got as far as the final hurdle. His approach
was more relaxed leading up to last year's British Open in
Manchester - and he became the first French winner in its 80-year
history.
"Winning the British was a dream of mine - it's my biggest win
ever," Gaultier said. It was also a dream he had previously
experienced, as a junior, which helped take some of the tension
away.
Still, the feeling of trying to win a big title is not at all like
the feeling of defending it, so whilst acknowledging that the
difference between the two needed addressing, he wasn't going to get
too focused on it.
“I didn't think about how I will take it,” he said. “I don't know.
There are not many tournaments that I win and have to defend titles!
“Probably my coach and I will talk about it. But I won't be thinking
about defending something. I'm going to try to win something, you
know. I'll try to think it's a new thing to win.”
That's not just a mental device, it's an accurate description in
quite specific ways. This time he will be competing in May, not
September, and in a quite different ambience at the hugely
impressive
ECHO Arena Liverpool - and the opposition will likely be different
too.
Last time Gaultier overcame Englishmen
Jonathan Kemp and
Adrian
Grant;
Egyptian Amr Shabana;
and France's
Thierry Lincou.
It was a great effort to get the better of his more senior
compatriot in the final and the world number one in the semis.
This time though there will be another Egyptian,
Ramy Ashour, the
reigning
ATCO Super Series Finals
champion and the
brightest new star in a decade, contending for the title.
Nor should he rule out some of the other usual suspects - two former
British Open champions, David
Palmer and Nick
Matthew; one nearly champion in
James
Willstrop; and
one still-could-be champion in
Karim Darwish.
Can Gaultier fight them off? Much will depend on his recovery from
a wrist injury which spoiled the first three months of his year. He
took two weeks off but the pain returned and he then took another
three weeks off which he believes may have solved the problem.
There have been injury problems too for Ashour, who nevertheless won
the Tournament of Champions
in New York,
PACE Canadian Classic
and Hurghada International
- while Shabana, who finished 2007 with five successive titles and
exhaustion, has looked less impressive in 2008 and his form is very
much an unknown quantity.
If Gaultier doesn't win again, his eight-month tenure will have made
him the briefest British Open champion, but don't count on that
being the Frenchman's latest record - it is already a tournament
where he has repeated his dreams.
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Men's Draw
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Men's Draw
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