Six Former
Champions
In Bid For Doha Double
Egypt's world number one Ramy Ashour leads a group of
six former Qatar Classic champions who are eager to win the
PSA Super Series squash title for a second time in Doha from
7-12 November.
The $147k Qatar Classic - the ninth of ten 2010 PSA
Super Series events - celebrates its tenth successive year
at the Khalifa International Tennis & Squash Complex in the
Qatar capital. Surprisingly, not since England's Peter Nicol
in 2002 has any player won the prestigious title more than a
single time.
Top seed Ashour will be hoping to repeat his success in
April 2007, when the Qatar title was his third Super Series
crown in three months! The 23-year-old from Cairo faces a
qualifier in the first round before a predicted
quarter-final clash with sixth seed James Willstrop.
Englishman Willstrop lifted the title in 2005, and also
opens his 2010 campaign against a qualifier.
Third seed Amr Shabana claimed the trophy in November
2007 - and is expected to line up against fellow Egyptian
Ashour in the semi-finals.
England's defending champion Nick Matthew is expected
to meet Ashour in the final. The 30-year-old second seed
from Sheffield - a double Commonwealth Games gold medallist
in India earlier this month - faces Qatari wildcard opponent
Ahmad Mohd Al-Tamimi in the first round.
Matthew's anticipated semi-final opponent is fourth seed
Karim Darwish, the 2008 champion. But the world No5 from
Cairo is likely to have first faced Frenchman Thierry Lincou
in the previous round. It was in 2004 that eighth seed
Lincou last reaped success in Doha, winning the World Open
title.
Australia's David Palmer is making his tenth
successive Qatar Classic appearance next month in Doha. The
34-year-old former world number one and two-time world
champion boasts four appearances in the Doha final - in
2001, 2002, 2005 and 2007 - but has yet to clinch the title.
Seeded 12, Palmer opens his 2010 campaign against England's
Jonathan Kemp.
In the women's $74k event world number one Nicol David
will be aiming to maintain her unbeaten record, and to
reclaim the Qatar Classic title which she lost to Jenny
Duncalf, the second seed, last year.
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