Viral condition ends Gaultier’s hopes of a seventh National title
Joint world number one Gregory Gaultier has withdrawn from the Men’s French National Championship in Strasbourg this weekend due to a virus.
Gaultier, who suffered a semi-final defeat at the Swedish Open last week to eventual champion Nick Matthew, made the announcement on his official Facebook page but is still expected to compete at the Windy City Open in Chicago later this month.
The six-time French National champion is the second seed for the PSA World Series £115,000 event at the University Club of Chicago and will be gunning for his first title since the US Open in October.
The 31-year-old from Aix-en-Provence is scheduled to face a qualifier in his opening round, but may need to negotiate past Spanish number one Borja Golan and world number three Mohamed Elshorbagy to advance into his 57th PSA Tour final.
Windy City Open (24 February – 03 March) – First Round Draw:
[1] Nick Matthew (ENG) v Qualifier
Laurens Jan Anjema (NED) v Qualifier
Mathieu Castagnet (FRA) v Alister Walker (BOT)
Adrian Grant (ENG) v [8] Peter Barker (ENG)
[5] James Willstrop (ENG) v Qualifier
Amr Shabana (EGY) v Qualifier
Marwan Elshorbagy (EGY) v Tom Richards (ENG)
Cameron Pilley (AUS) v [3] Ramy Ashour (EGY)
[4] Mohamed Elshorbagy (EGY) v Stephen Coppinger (RSA)
Omar Mossad (EGY) v Qualifier
Saurav Ghosal (IND) v [WC} Peter Creed (WAL)
Tarek Momen (EGY) v Karim Darwish (EGY)
[7] Borja Golan (ESP) v Miguel Angel Rodriguez (COL)
Simon Rosner (GER) v Qualifier
Karim Adbel Gawad (EGY) v Qualifier
Qualifier v [2] Gregory Gaultier (FRA)
Picture by Steve Cubbins (SquashSite)