French & English Qualifiers Boost Swedish Open Draw from PSA Media February 6, 2014 -
A pair of qualifiers from both France and England will boost the draw
of the Case Swedish Open after successes by Mathieu Castagnet, Gregoire
Marche, Adrian Waller and Chris Simpson in the qualifying finals of the
11th staging of the PSA World Tour International 70 squash event at
Linköping Sporthall in Linköping, Sweden. Castagnet celebrated
his career-high World No.21 ranking this month with an 11-4, 11-9,
12-10 victory over South African Shaun le Roux to earn his first
appearance in the championship main draw since 2011. The 27-year-old from
Aix-en-Provence will line up against fourth seed Borja Golan, the World
No.6 from Spain who is making his Swedish Open debut. Fellow Frenchman
Gregoire Marche will also make his Linköping debut. The
23-year-old World No.31 needed four games to overcome Hong Kong's Max
Lee, ranked just a single position lower, 8-11, 11-9, 11-5, 15-13. Simpson became a
Swedish Open qualifier for the fourth year in a row after defeating the
top-ranked Scot Alan Clyne 11-5, 11-8, 11-3. But bidding to
progress beyond the first round for the first time will be a tough task
for the Guernsey-born World No.22 who faces in-form Egyptian Amr
Shabana, the World No.9 who won the PSA World Series Tournament of
Champions title in New York last month. An 11-5, 11-5, 10-12,
11-5 victory over Finnish hope Henrik Mustonen gave Englishman Adrian
Waller a first round clash with defending champion Gregory Gaultier,
the second-seeded Frenchman who became the sport's first ever joint
World No.1 this month alongside England's Nick Matthew. Gaultier is aiming for
his third successive Swedish Open title - while No.3 seed Matthew,
champion three times in a row from 2009, has his sights on a sixth
appearance in the final since 2004. The two world number ones are scheduled to face-off in the semi-finals. But the eyes of the
squash world will be on No.1 seed Ramy Ashour, the 26-year-old from
Egypt who topped the world rankings throughout 2013. Ashour, who will play
his first ever match on Swedish soil this week, is making his first PSA
Tour appearance this year after recovering from a hamstring injury
aggravated during December's Hong Kong Open. Ashour lines up against top-ranked German Simon Rosner, the World No.11, in the first round.
RESULTS: Case Swedish Open, Linköping, Sweden Qualifying finals: Mathieu Castagnet (FRA) bt Shaun le Roux (RSA) 11-4, 11-9, 12-10 Gregoire Marche (FRA) bt Max Lee (HKG) 8-11, 11-9, 11-5, 15-13 Adrian Waller (ENG) bt Henrik Mustonen (FIN) 11-5, 11-5, 10-12, 11-5 Chris Simpson (ENG) bt Alan Clyne (SCO) 11-5, 11-8, 11-3
Updated 1st round draw: [1] Ramy Ashour (EGY) v Simon Rosner (GER) [8] Omar Mosaad (EGY) v [WC] Rasmus Hult (SWE) [6] Amr Shabana (EGY) v [Q] Chris Simpson (ENG) [4] Borja Golan (ESP) v [Q] Mathieu Castagnet (FRA) [3] Nick Matthew (ENG) v Tom Richards (ENG) [7] Daryl Selby (ENG) v [Q] Gregoire Marche (FRA) [5] Peter Barker (ENG) v Cameron Pilley (AUS) [2] Gregory Gaultier (FRA) v [Q] Adrian Waller (ENG)
