Mohamed Elshorbagy and Gregory Gaultier seeded to breeze through to Windy City final
By  Squash Mad Reporter
The draw for the 2014 Windy City Open presented by Guggenheim Partners and EquiTrust Life Insurance Company, PSA World Series event, has pitted some of the sport’s most talented players against each other in a bruising first round schedule.
Getting underway in the unique and beautifully intimate setting of Cathedral Hall at the prestigious University Club of Chicago on Thursday February 26, the opening round of action will see a series of highly anticipated encounters take centre stage with the standout contest seeing World No.9 Omar Mosaad face World No.10 Simon Rösner in what is certain to be a thrilling battle.
The 2014 runner-up Nick Matthew, the World No.4, will face the difficult task of playing Spanish World No.12 Borja Golan in his opening encounter while World No.6 Peter Barker will have to be at his best to get past a resurgent Stephen Coppinger, the South African who dumped both then World No.9 Daryl Selby and World No.12 Tarek Momen out of November’s PSA World Championship.
World No.1 Mohamed Elshorbagy will also have to negotiate a difficult opening match against the dangerous and ever improving Fares Dessouki in a draw that could provide plenty of shocks from the off.
“We’re delighted to have such a strong field of world class players competing here at the University Club in 2015 and are looking forward to what promises to be the best ever Windy City Open,” said Tournament Director John Flanigan.
“It’s fantastic that the first ever PSA World Series event in the MidWest has such an impressive line-up of stars. The depth of talent and the match-ups in this draw guarantee that no player has an easy path to the latter stages and I’m really looking forward to seeing the action unfold.”
2014 Windy City Open – Main Draw:
[1] Mohamed Elshorbagy (EGY) v Fares Dessouki (EGY)
Saurav Ghosal (IND) v Max Lee (HKG)
Nicolas Mueller (SUI) v [Qualifier]
[Qualifier] v [6] Tarek Momen (EGY)
[7] Miguel Angel Rodriguez (COL) v [Qualifier]
Karim Abdel Gawad (EGY) v [Qualifier]
Marwan Elshorbagy (EGY) v Mathieu Castagnet (FRA)
Chris Simpson (ENG) v [3] Amr Shabana (EGY)
[4] Nick Matthew (ENG) v Borja Golan (ESP)
Daryl Selby (ENG) v [WC] Chris Hanson (USA)
James Willstrop (ENG) v [Qualifier]
Stephen Coppinger (RSA) v [5] Peter Barker (ENG)
[8] Omar Mosaad (EGY) v Simon Rösner (GER)
Alister Walker (BOT) v [Qualifier]
Cameron Pilley (AUS) v [Qualifier]
[Qualifier] v [2] Gregory Gaultier (FRA)
The 2014 Windy City Open presented by Guggenheim Partners and EquiTrust Life Insurance Company takes place at the University Club of Chicago from Thursday February 26 – Wednesday March 4, with tickets available to purchase at www.windycityopen.com
Picture courtesy of PSAÂ