Previews:
27-Oct-10:
Kuwait Open begins countdown
to World Series Finals Places
The countdown for
places in next year's ATCO PSA World Series Squash Finals
begins this week in Kuwait where the $172,500 HH Sheikh Saad
Abdullah Al-Sabah Trophy, The Patriarch Amir, Kuwait Open - the
eighth of ten 2010 PSA Super Series events - gets underway on
Thursday.
With title triumphs in the Hong Kong Open and British Grand Prix
- and final appearances in all but one of the seven Super Series
championships already this year - Egypt's world number one
Ramy Ashour heads the Super Series rankings by a massive 125
points.
Only the top eight players, with points accumulated from this
year's Super Series events, will qualify for the ATCO PSA World
Series Finals at The Queen's Club in London from 11-15 January
2011.
England's Nick Matthew - who chose not to play in last
week's El Gouna International Open in Egypt after competing in
the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, where he won two gold medals -
is in second place in the latest list after winning titles at
the North American Open, the Australian Open, and the Sky Open
in Egypt.
As the top two seeds in Kuwait, Ashour and Matthew are expected
to meet in next Tuesday's final at Green Island.
Third-placed Englishman James Willstrop, winner of the
opening Super Series event of the year at the Tournament of
Champions in New York; fourth-placed Egyptian Karim Darwish,
the El Gouna champion; and France's fifth-placed Gregory
Gaultier, a two-time World Series Finals champion, can feel
reasonably comfortable with their positions in the Super Series
rankings.
But Tour veterans Thierry Lincou, Amr Shabana and
David Palmer will not feel entirely safe in their current
positions in the top eight. Frenchman Lincou, looking to make
his ninth World Series Finals appearance next year, shares sixth
place with Egypt's reigning World Open champion Shabana - while
Palmer, the 2002 World Series champion, is only five points
ahead of Peter Barker, the ninth-placed Englishman eager
to make his World Series Finals debut.
World's
Top Players Plan Latest
Kuwait Open Title Bid
With more than half of the top ten seeds in the 2010 HH
Sheikh Saad Abdullah Al-Sabah Trophy, The Patriarch Amir,
Kuwait Open having held the world number one ranking in
their careers, the $172k PSA Super Series event due to take
place on Green Island from 28 October to 02 November
promises to be one of the most competitive ever seen in the
country.
The 2010 Kuwait Open, the eighth Super Series event of the
year, provides the climax of the first year of a three-year
agreement between Sheikha Fadia Al-Sabah of Kuwait and the
Professional Squash Association which guarantees nine PSA
World Tour events in the Middle East country over the
period.
The Kuwait Open has been a leading annual event on the PSA
Tour since first backed by Sheikha Fadia Al-Sabah in
2004 - and will continue to be a popular Middle East
stop-off on the Tour's flagship PSA Super Series.
Under Sheikha Fadia's guidance, Kuwait hosted the 2009 Men's
World Open - a star-studded championship which was staged at
the Green Island Resort and boasted a world record $277k
prize-fund.
England's Nick Matthew is seeded to win his fourth
Super Series event of the year at the Kuwait Open. The world
No2 from Sheffield will face Cameron Pilley, the
Australian No2, in the opening round - and is expected to
line up against second seed Ramy Ashour, the Egyptian
who succeeded him as world No1 this month, in the final.
But the draw predicts that Matthew may have first to
overcome distinguished Egyptian Amr Shabana in the
semi-finals. The 31-year-old from Cairo won his fourth World
Open title last year in Green Island, and was the previous
year's Kuwait Open champion.
Indeed in both cases Shabana defeated Ashour in the finals -
and lost out to his younger compatriot in the 2007 final!
Rising star Abdullah Almezayen single-handedly
represents local interest in the championship. The
22-year-old left-hander faces a tough first round opponent
in fifth-seeded Frenchman Gregory Gaultier - one of
seven former world number ones in the event who was
runner-up to Ramy Ashour in the recent Super Series event,
the Hong Kong Open. |
|
Super Series Rankings |
|
1 |
Ramy Ashour (EGY) |
500 |
|
2 |
Nick Matthew (ENG) |
375 |
|
3 |
James Willstrop (ENG) |
320 |
|
4 |
Karim Darwish (EGY) |
285 |
|
5 |
Gregory Gaultier (FRA) |
260 |
|
6= |
Amr Shabana (EGY) |
180 |
|
6= |
Thierry Lincou (FRA) |
180 |
|
8 |
David Palmer (AUS) |
125 |
|
9 |
Peter Barker (ENG) |
120 |
|
10 |
Wael El Hindi (EGY) |
105 |
|
11 |
Alister Walker (ENG) |
95 |
|
12
|
Adrian Grant (ENG) |
80 |
|
