Frost Comes Unexpectedly To Saudi
30 Nov 2010
Severe food poisoning has forced Ong Beng Hee to withdraw from this week's Saudi PSA World Open Championship at Sunset Beach Resort in the Saudi Arabian city of Al-Khobar.
The 19th seed from Malaysia, due to make his ninth successive appearance in the premier annual PSA World Tour squash event, will be replaced in the seedings by Simon Rosner, the world No33 from Germany.
And making an unexpected last-minute appearance in the draw will be 'lucky loser' Kristian Frost Olesen, the 21-year-old world No83 from Denmark who will now line up against second seed Ramy Ashour, the world No1 from Egypt, in the first round.
Top seed in the $327,500 championship - the richest of all-time - is Nick Matthew, the world No2 from Sheffield who is hoping to become the first ever Englishman to win the sport's leading title.
The Saudi PSA World Open, which now features 64 players from 24 countries, is the first World Open ever to be staged in Saudi Arabia. The event gets underway on Thursday (2 December), leading to the final on Friday 10 December.
Revised 1st round draw:
[1] Nick Matthew (ENG) v Ryan Cuskelly (AUS)
[26] Shahier Razik (CAN) v [Q] Joe Lee (ENG)
[12] Laurens Jan Anjema (NED) v [Q] Mohammed Abbas (EGY)
[23] Hisham Mohd Ashour (EGY) v Chris Ryder (ENG)
[7] Thierry Lincou (FRA) v [Q] Kashif Shuja (NZL)
[21] Omar Mosaad (EGY) v [Q] Julien Balbo (FRA)
[16] Alister Walker (ENG) v Stephen Coppinger (RSA)
[28] Joey Barrington (ENG) v [Q] Alan Clyne (SCO)
[3] Amr Shabana (EGY) v [Q] Chris Simpson (ENG)
[27] Mohd Ali Anwar Reda (EGY) v [Q] Karim Abdel Gawad (EGY)
[14] Mohd Azlan Iskandar (MAS) v [Q] Jan Koukal (CZE)
[30] Miguel Angel Rodriguez (COL) v Mark Krajcsak (HUN)
[5] Gregory Gaultier (FRA) v Mohammed Taher Al-Saif (KSA)
[29] Farhan Mehboob (PAK) v [Q] Muhd Asyraf Azan (MAS)
[10] David Palmer (AUS) v [Q] Stephane Galifi (ITA)
[20] Jonathan Kemp (ENG) v Rafael F Alarcon (BRA)
[18] Stewart Boswell (AUS) v Davide Bianchetti (ITA)
[15] Adrian Grant (ENG) v Renan Lavigne (FRA)
[32] Simon Rosner (GER) v [Q] Robbie Temple (ENG)
[8] Peter Barker (ENG) v [Q] Mohd Nafiizwan Adnan (MAS)
[19] Tarek Momen (EGY) v Aaron Frankcomb (AUS)
[11] Wael El Hindi (EGY) v Gregoire Marche (FRA)
[31] Tom Richards (ENG) v [Q] Adrian Waller (ENG)
[4] Karim Darwish (EGY) v Julian Illingworth (USA)
[24] Olli Tuominen (FIN) v Omar Abdel Aziz (EGY)
[9] Daryl Selby (ENG) v Campbell Grayson (NZL)
[25] Saurav Ghosal (IND) v [Q] Borja Golan (ESP)
[6] James Willstrop (ENG) v Nicolas Mueller (SUI)
[17] Cameron Pilley (AUS) v [Q] Mathieu Castagnet (FRA)
[13] Mohamed El Shorbagy (EGY) v Martin Knight (NZL)
[22] Aamir Atlas Khan (PAK) v [Q] Steve Finitsis (AUS)
[2] Ramy Ashour (EGY) v Kristian Frost Olesen (DEN)
Official event website: www.atcosquash.com