Ashour In Race To Qualify For Dubai World Series Finals by Sean Reuthe March 18, 2016
- Three-time World Champion Ramy Ashour's hopes of qualifying for the
season-ending PSA Dubai World Series Finals will be put on the line
during next week's Allam British Open, the sixth PSA World Series
tournament of the 2015/16 season, when the maverick Egyptian goes into
the prestigious tournament 90 points adrift of a top eight spot on the
Road To Dubai Standings.
Only the top eight players on the
standings will compete at the World Series Finals, which take place
from May 24-28 in Dubai, and with just one tournament, the El Gouna
International, to be played after the British Open, the 28-year-old
will need to reach at least one final and one semi-final to be in with
a chance of defending the title he won in 2014 - the last time the
World Series Finals were staged.
‘The Artist’, who has been
out of action for four months with a troublesome hamstring injury,
opens up his British Open campaign against a qualifier on Monday March
21 and is seeded to meet World No.3 Nick Matthew in the quarter-final
in what could be a pivotal encounter while in next month's El Gouna
International on home soil he is seeded to meet World No.1 Mohamed
Elshorbagy, also in the quarter-finals. Ashour beat Elshorbagy to the
title on home soil 12 months ago but will see his hopes of
participating in Dubai hinging on a positive result against Elshorbagy
- who has dominated the PSA World Tour in Ashour’s absence claiming
four World Series titles.
Teetering on the edge of
qualification are the likes of Mathieu Castagnet, Cameron Pilley,
Miguel Angel Rodriguez and Simon Rösner who make up 5th-8th place,
respectively.
Castagnet, who won the recent Canary Wharf
Classic, is seeded to meet World Championship runner-up Omar Mosaad in
the quarter-final of the British Open while Pilley and Rösner have
extremely difficult first round encounters. Pilley faces World Champion
Gregory Gaultier and Rösner has a banana-skin fixture against Hong
Kong’s Max Lee.
Rodriguez, meanwhile, has struggled for form
in recent months and is ranked just 25 points inside the top eight.
With a possible quarter-final clash against Elshorbagy in the offering,
the ‘Colombian Cannonball’ may need to spring a surprise if he is to
avoid being dragged into the qualification dogfight.
A
number of players lie just outside the qualification spots with
Egyptian trio Tarek Momen, Mazen Hesham and Karim Abdel Gawad all
needing to find some form in both the British Open and the El Gouna
International.
Momen has been inconsistent thus far and has
been unable to progress past the last eight of a World Series event
this season while exciting shot-maker Hesham achieved a semi-final
berth in Qatar but followed that up with a shock first round exit at
the Cathay Pacific Sun Hung Kai Financial Classic a month later. A hip
injury has ruled Hesham since then and he is yet to make an appearance
in 2016.
Gawad, meanwhile, has been one of the most exciting
players on the PSA World Tour this season but the World No.7 has
struggled to impose himself on the World Series tournaments with a
quarter-final finish at the Qatar Classic his best so far this season.
Momen
will line up against former World No.1 James Willstrop in the opening
round of the British Open, with Hesham and Gawad set for respective
fixtures against Fares Dessouki and Omar Mosaad.
Elshorbagy,
Gaultier, Matthew and Mosaad are comfortably inside the top four in the
standings and can secure their Dubai berths with a latter stage finish
in Hull.
