Ghosal to lead Indian challenge

Former world champion and Egypt’s Amr Shabana, sidelined due to a hamstring injury that also forced him to miss the Kuwait Cup Open, and the Englishman Nick Matthew, the defending champion, have withdrawn from the USD 1,65,000 week-long event.

Commonwealth Games double gold medallist Matthew sustained an injury in last month’s penultimate PSA World Series event of the year in Kuwait. Another former world number one France’s Thierry Lincou has opted to take rest after a punishing autumn and the Australian Stewart Boswell has announced his retirement from the game. 

Title success in the Punj Llyod PSA Masters a year ago led Matthew to the top of the world rankings in January - a position the Englishman has managed to retain throughout the year. “I’m obviously massively disappointed and have done everything in my power to get fit in time,” said the 31-year-old from Sheffield, who is nursing an adductor injury.

The withdrawal could lead to Matthew losing his world number one ranking to fellow Yorkshireman James Willstrop, who is enjoying the best form of his life, and this month moved to second place in the rankings after back-to-back victories in the Hong Kong Open and the Kuwait PSA Cup.

Should the 28-year-old from Leeds win the Punj Lloyd PSA Masters, he will overtake Matthew as world number one for the first time in January.

Willstrop is the No 3 seed now, and begins his PSA Masters campaign against Swiss number one Nicolas Mueller. Matthew’s withdrawal has moved Ramy Ashour to top seed and fellow Egyptian Karim Darwish to second seed.

Newly-crowned national champion Saurav Ghosal will lead the Indian challenge along with Siddharth Suchde, the host nation’s wildcard entrant. Ghosal, ranked 26th in the world, has been drawn to meet USA’s Julian Illingworth in the first round. “I have a realistic chance of beating Julian in the first round. Hopefully, I can play well against him and progress to the next round,” said Ghosal.

“I have to focus on Julian first and hopefully beat England’s Peter Barker in the next round, who has had a pretty good season, and reach the quarterfinals this time,” added the 25-year-old.

Ghosal went down to Egyptian Amr Shabana in the second round last year.