Gaultier and Ashour Set to Headline $70K September San Francisco NetSuite Open by Blake Rhodes SAN FRANCISCO, August 7, 2014
— Two of the world’s top four ranked squash players – current
U.S. Open champion and No. 1 Gregory Gaultier and No. 4 Ramy Ashour –
headline the field for the 2014 NetSuite Open Squash Championships
(NSO), Event Engine, Inc. announced today. One of only four elite
squash championships in the U.S., the NetSuite Open returns for its
third year to San Francisco’s South Lawn of Justin Herman Plaza
September 24-30.
“Squash fans remember
the great five-game NetSuite Open championship match between Gregory
and Ramy last year, so I’m thrilled that they’re coming back to compete
for the NetSuite Open title once again in San Francisco this season,”
said John Nimick, a U.S. Squash Hall of Famer and President of Event
Engine, Inc., the tournament producer. “A world class city is worthy of
world class field, and this year’s Open certainly has that.”
In addition to
Gaultier and Ashour, two other top 10 ranked players will participate
in this year’s NSO. Egypt’s Amr Shabana, ranked No. 5, and England’s
Peter Barker, ranked No. 8, are seeds three and four, respectively, in
the field for the Professional Squash Association International 70
tournament that boasts 11 of the top 25 players on the current Dunlop
PSA World Rankings. The tournament’s 28-player field represents nine
countries and contains a collective six world championships (Ashour –
two and Shabana – four).
Two-time World
Champion Ashour looks to defend his 2013 NSO title, when he defeated
France’s Gaultier 11-4, 7-11, 7-11, 11-3, 11-2 to register his ninth
straight tournament victory of that season and extended his unbeaten
tour run to 45 matches. The 5-11, 176-pound Egyptian owns a 282-52 PSA
tour mark (.844) and is a 32-time PSA tournament champion.
France’s Gaultier, the
world’s top ranked player and 2012 NSO champion, is coming off winning
his second Allam British Open – squash’s most historic tournament – in
May. The seven-time French National Title winner owns a 379-117
lifetime record (.764) on the PSA Tour during his distinguished 15-year
career.
Julian Illingworth,
seven-time USA national Champion and the highest ranked American player
in the world for the past eight years, receives the main draw Wild Card
spot.
The complete entries with seedings for the NetSuite Open Squash Championships follow:
Seed World Rank, Player, Country
13. No. 1 Gregory Gaultier (France)
14. No. 4 Ramy Ashour (Egypt)
15. No. 5 Amr Shabana (Egypt)
16. No. 8 Peter Barker (England)
17. No. 14 Miguel Angel Rodriguez (Colombia)
18. No. 15 Laurens Jan Anjema (Netherlands)
19. No. 19 Mathieu Castagnet (France)
20. No. 20 Cameron Pilley (Australia)
21. No. 22 Adrian Grant (England)
22. No. 23 Chris Simpson (England)
23. No. 24 Alister Walker (Botswana)
24. No. 58 Julian Illingworth (USA)
The early rounds,
comprising two rounds of Qualifying and six matches in the First Round
(final 16) of the Main Draw will be played at Stanford University, the
Bay Club San Francisco, Olympic Club and University Club. Two first
round matches, the Quarterfinals, Semi-Finals and Championship will be
played at Justin Herman Plaza.
Some 400 reserved
seats are available for the NetSuite Open, ranging in price from $30 to
$250. For tickets, draws, schedule and more information, please visit
www.netsuiteopensquash.com. Follow the NetSuite Open on Facebook and
Twitter.
About NetSuite Today, more than
16,000 companies and subsidiaries depend on NetSuite to run complex,
mission-critical business processes globally in the cloud. Since its
inception in 1998, NetSuite has established itself as the leading
provider of enterprise-class cloud financials/ERP suites for divisions
of large enterprises and mid-sized organizations seeking to upgrade
their antiquated client/server ERP systems. NetSuite excels at
streamlining business operations as demonstrated in a recent Gartner
study naming NetSuite as the fastest growing financial management
software vendor on a global basis. NetSuite continues its success in
delivering the best cloud ERP/financials suites to businesses around
the world, enabling them to lower IT costs significantly while
increasing productivity, as the global adoption of the cloud is
accelerating. Follow NetSuite's Cloud blog, NetSuite's Facebook page
and @NetSuite Twitter handle for real-time updates.
About Event Engine Event Engine, Inc. is
a visionary event and entertainment marketing company specializing in
the creation of unique athletic, musical, corporate and philanthropic
events in extraordinary venues. Founded in 2000 by US Squash Hall
of Fame member John Nimick, Event Engine has grown from the management
of a single, but unique, annual professional squash championship in
Grand Central Terminal to a portfolio of successful events in some of
the best known locations in North America and with some of the
best-known entertainment celebrities in the world. The Event
Engine mission is to provide an unparalleled, highly valuable, highest
quality result for clients, customer and corporate partners.
Event Engine is part of the Welldone Group, a global sports and
entertainment agency based in Frankfurt, Germany.
