05-Mar, Preview:
PSA Cup returns to Kuwait
 After
staging the first two World Series events of the year in the
United States, the PSA World Tour moves several thousand miles
and eight hours to the East for the $190k Kuwait PSA Cup.
Kuwait has been the host of many PSA World Series events,
notably the World Open in 2009, but this is just the second
edition of the PSA Cup, featuring a unique draw which sees the
top 48 players competing with no qualifying competition.
The top sixteen seeds all get byes into the second round, where
they face the winners of sixteen first round matches.
Unlike last time around in 2011, there is no "FA Cup" style draw
for the quarter-finals (in 2011 the top two seeds Nick
Matthew and Karim Darwish were drawn together).
 Top
seed, coming to Kuwait on a sensational run of nine finals in a
row and 31 unbeaten matches which have seen him raise the trophy
in each of his last six events, is world number one and world
champion Ramy Ashour.
Matthew, who was forced to pull out of that 2011 quarter-final
with injury, is seeded two and is in the same half of the draw
as defending champion James Willstrop, who became world
number one partly on the back of winning here 16 months ago.
Both will need to play well to set up their seeded semi-final -
Matthew could well face two tricky third matches against fellow
Englishmen Adrian Grant (who plays wildcard Yousif Nizar Saleh
in the first round) and Daryl Selby, followed by a
possible quarter-final against fast-rising Egyptian Mohamed
El Shorbagy.
 Willstrop,
after a first round against the winner of Alan Clyne and
Gregoire Marche, will need to get past , if all goes to
seeding, Egypt's Tarek Momen and in the quarters would
face Darwish in a repeat of last time's final.
Ashour's scheduled semi-final opponent is the equally in-form
Frenchman Gregory Gaultier, but both have dangerous
potential opponents along the way - Ashour's quarter contains
Simon Rosner, Omar Mosaad, and Amr Shabana,
the resurgent four-time world champion who made four Kuwait
finals in a row before suffering a first round setback to Rosner
last time out.
 Gaultier's
scheduled path to the semis would entail him facing Steve
Coppinger, Borja Golan, and Peter Barker, no
easy tasks those.
All the action takes place at the Qadsia Club, with
Friday's first round split over the club's showcourt and the
Glass Court in the club's spacious multi-purpose hall.
Full Draw
Follow all the action
LIVE on SquashTV, with full results, reports, photos and
lots more here on the official site. |
Qadsia Club Showcourt
Glass Court at Qadsia, 2007
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