Doha: World No. 2 Nick Matthew has been forced to withdraw from the upcoming 2015 Qatar Classic, PSA World Series tournament, due to an abdominal injury.
Matthew is the second top-ten ranked player to give the Qatar tournament a miss. Last week, World Champion Ramy Ashour withdrew from the tournament, at the Khalfa Tennis and Squash Complex in Doha, Qatar – the scene of his dramatic 2014 World Championship victory twelve months ago.
The 28-year-old Egyptian was forced to concede his second round match at the recent Delaware Investments US Open against Mathieu Castagnet of France due to a hamstring injury and has failed to recover in time for the Qatar Classic, which starts on October 31.
Gamal Rasmi the technical secretary of Qatar Squash Federation (QSF) and head of the Media Committee for the Qatar Classic said the absence of Ashour and Matthew will not affect the popularity of the tournament as most of the others top ranked players will be in Qatar for the tournament.
“Ashour and Matthew are the two players who have withdrawn from the tournament on account of injuries but all the other stars are participating , starting from World No. 1 to 27,” said Rasmi while speaking to reporters.
The withdrawal of Matthew has paved the way for Nicolas Mueller of Switzerland to move into the main draw.
Mueller will face England’s Adrian Waller when the action gets underway on October 31 while World No. 3 Gregory Gaultier moves up to occupy the number two seeding and will face Spaniard Borja Golan in the first round.
35-year-old Matthew will now face a race against the clock in order to recover fully to compete in the 2015 Men’s World Championship which gets underway in Bellevue, Washington in less than three weeks.
Meanwhile, Qatar’s challenge at the championship will be led by four players, three of them in the qualifying and one in the main draw.
Abdullah Al Tamimi, World No. 71 has been handed a wild card and will face Mohamed Al Shorbagi, the World No. 1.
The other three Qatari players are Abulrahaman Al Malki, Sayed Azlan and Ahmed Al Tamimi, who will see action in the qualifying rounds. Out of the 32 players competing in the qualifying, eight will make it to the main draw.
The Arabs players who are participating in the men’s qualification draw are Omar Abdel Maguid, Zahid Mohamed, Mohamed Abouelgahr, Ali Farag, Mohamed Reda, Shehab Essam, all from Egypt, Abdullah Al Mezayen, Amar Al Tamimi.
The event also marks the return of top-level women’s game to Doha for the first time since 2011. Six-time Qatar Classic champion Nicol David of Malaysia will be the star attraction, but Egypt’s newly-crowned world No. 1 Raneem El Welily has been given the top billing. Last week, World No. 5 Alison Waters and World No. 8 Nour El Tayebe both withdrew from competing, due to injury. Recent Delaware Investments US Open runner-up El Tayeb has pulled out after failing to recover from a shoulder injury sustained following a heavy fall during her impressive quarter-final win over El Welily while Waters will no longer compete in the Middle East after aggravating a lower back injury.
As a result Tesni Evans of Wales and Yathreb Adel of Egypt have moved into the main draw automatically to face Nouran Gohar of Egypt and Dipika Pallikal of India, respectively.
“Laura Massaro World No. 3 and Nour El Tayeb World No. 8 withdrawal also will not affect the women tournament as other stars starting from World No. 1 Raneem El Walily till world number 28 in the world will be in action,” said Rasmi.
Meanwhile, Qatar Squash Federation announced a fleet of 30 cars belonging to Al-Jaidah have been pressed into service to pick up and drop players from the Hamad International Airport.
“Al-Jaidah fleet of 30 cars will be running its service during the tournament for 24 hours from airport to the accommodation and to the venue and also back to the airport,” said a QSF official.
The Peninsula
