North American Open Squash – Tournament Preview

This tournament, held in Richmond, Virginia, has grown from very little to become a prestigious Super Series event on the PSA world tour in an impressively short period of time. The 2009 North American Open arguably displayed some of the best squash of the year, with reference to the Darwish-Ashour semi-final and the Ashour-Matthew final, which can both be viewed from the archived footage at the recently discontinued PSAlive.tv. The 2010 draw features all of the top ten players, highlighting the new status of this event.

Second Round Draw:

[1] Ramy Ashour (EGY) v [13] Aamir Atlas Khan (PAK)

[6] Peter Barker (ENG) v [9] Thierry Lincou (FRA)

[3] Amr Shabana (EGY) v [11] Wael El Hindi (EGY)

[8] David Palmer (AUS) v [14] Olli Tuominen (FIN)

[7] James Willstrop (ENG) v [12] Alister Walker (ENG)

[4] Gregory Gaultier (FRA) v [15] Joey Barrington (ENG)

[5] Karim Darwish (EGY) v [10] Adrian Grant (ENG)

[2] Nick Matthew (ENG) v [Q] Mohammed Abbas (EGY)

The tournament is quick to produce some compelling match-ups in the second round, with the Ashour-Khan game of great interest, given the steady improvement we have observed in the young and energetic Pakistani, coupled with the sluggish performance of the world number one in the first round, which saw him drawn into five sets. Darwish-Grant, promises to be close, as the Englishman can always be relied upon for consistency, whilst the former world number one has yet to show that he is back to his best form after a troubled end to last year. Eyes will also be on Peter Barker and Thierry Lincou, seeded 6th and 9th respectively. Barker has steadily risen into the top 10, but has not performed in recent tournaments, whilst the legendary Lincou is always a danger with his vast amount of experience.

Semi-finals according to seedings:

[1] Ramy Ashour (EGY) v [3] Amr Shabana (EGY)

[4] Gregory Gaultier (FRA) v [2] Nick Matthew (ENG)

Final according to seedings:

[1] Ramy Ashour (EGY) v [2] Nick Matthew (ENG)

Should the seeds prevail then the semi-finals and final should look as such, however, James Willstrop will have much to say about this given recent form. Willstrop is currently in great form, playing an attacking but measured brand of squash, however he has been unable to overcome Nick Matthew in many attempts, bowing to his fellow countryman’s superior physicality, yet should they meet in the semi-finals it will again be an interesting spectacle. Likewise Gregory Gaultier, who Willstrop is seeded to face in the quarter-finals has shown himself to be lacking in focus since his rise to world number one towards the end of last year.

Since his world open win last year, Amr Shabana has been there or thereabouts, but has lacked either the desire or fitness to convert in the latter stages. His quarter-final with David Palmer could be a test.

Ramy Ashour and Nick Matthew are on course to meet yet again, having squared off in New York recently, and at the Saudi International before that, in which the world number one title was at stake. If the two do meet again, will Nick capitalise on Ramy’s first round hiccup and finally end his poor run against the 22 year old Egyptian…

All of the matches can be seen here - 

For more information:

NAO Squash – Official site

Squash Info – NAO Results

– Draw