#82 Chris Gordon Wildcarded Into US Open
from DailySquashReport.com
September 5, 2011 - As Pro Squash Tour commissioner Joe McManus says, “Local wildcards can be a fascinating study”.
The USA’s number three player Christopher Gordon has received a wild card into the main draw of the $115,000 US Open which begins September 28th in Philadelphia. He will face world #10 Thierry Lincou of France in a round-of-32 match in the World Series event, one of the eight designated top-tier tournaments on the PSA Tour.
Meanwhile, scrambling to make it through two days of tough qualifying rounds will be 23 PSA players ranked higher than Gordon.
These higher-ranked players having to qualify include Ong Beng Hee of Malaysia, Saurav Ghoshal of India, Simon Rosner of Germany, Tarek Momen of Egypt, Julian Illingworth of the US, Nicolas Mueller of Switzerland, Steve Coppinger of South Africa, Chris Ryder of England, Joey Barrington of England, Alan Clyne of Scotland, Arturo Salazar of Mexico, Ryan Cuskelly of Australia, Martin Knight of New Zealand, Jan Koukal of the Czech Republic, Shawn Delierre of Canada, Cesar Salazar of Mexico, Adrain Waller of England, Henrik Mustonen of Finland, Julien Balbo of France, Robbie Temple of England, Siddarth Suchde of India, Marwan El Shorbagy of Egypt and Kamran Khan of Malaysia.
US Squash outlined the wildcard selection criteria to DailySquashReport as follows:
“1. The Main Draw Wildcard position will be offered to the highest ranked
U.S. player (as determined by ranking 2 months before the tournament's
closing date for entries) who is not already guaranteed a main draw
placement based on his or her ranking.
“2. In the event a player has used his or her wildcard slot in the past
calendar year (in the case of PSA) or in the past 12 month period (in the
case of WISPA), the wildcard will be offered to the next highest ranked
eligible player.
“3. If a player refuses the position, the Wildcard is offered to the next
players in descending order of their rankings.
“In this case, both Julian Illingworth and Gilly Lane already used their PSA
wildcard for the year before this event (at the Tournament of Champions and North American Open respectively), so Chris Gordon was next on the
list. PSA regulations allow a player to take only 1 wildcard per calendar
year. We are excited to watch all three of them compete in an event with
such a world-class field.”
There is a viewpoint however, that by handing a wildcard to a player ranked outside of the PSA top 75, the tour is not putting its best possible product on the floor.
Earlier, a report surfaced that Drexel University head coach and former world #1 John White was being prohibited from entering the US Open qualifying draw because of his involvement with the US-based Pro Squash Tour.
However, White is now in the US Open qualifying field.
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