A star-studded field featuring the top 12 players in the world will compete in this month's North American Open Squash Championship, the second PSA Super Series 2010 event of the year which will take place at the University of Richmond in Richmond, Virginia, from 21-27 February.

The draw for the $93,750 championship – which offers the biggest prize fund of the year so far – reveals that last year's finalists Ramy Ashour and Nick Matthew, now ranked one and two in the world, respectively, are scheduled to contest the 2010 climax.

Defending champion Ashour will line up alongside no fewer than five players who have also topped the PSA world rankings – including fellow Egyptians Amr Shabana and Karim Darwish, seeded three and five respectively; Frenchmen Gregory Gaultier and Thierry Lincou, the fifth and ninth seeds; and David Palmer, the US-based Australian who celebrated his 114th consecutive month in the world's top ten this month.

Ashour begins his 2010 North American Open campaign against South African Stephen Coppinger and is expected to come up against national rival Amr Shabana in the semi-finals.  Meanwhile, second seed Nick Matthew's first round opponent is Paraguayan wildcard player Esteban Casarino.

National interest will be led by Julian Illingworth, the five times US national champion from New York who is the 16th seed.  Illingworth will face a qualifier in the first round before a likely last 16 clash with Nick Matthew.

Also looking for further PSA Tour success this year on US soil will be No7 seed James Willstrop, the Englishman who claimed the first PSA Super Series 2010 title at the JP Morgan Tournament of Champions in New York, where be beat Darwish, Shabana and Ashour in successive rounds en-route to winning the 20th Tour title of his career.

Willstrop is no stranger to success in Richmond, where he won the Davenport Professional Squash Championship PSA Tour title in 2008, but was unable to return to the venue a year later due to illness.

"We are delighted to welcome back the world’s leading players to Richmond for a very special event," said Tournament Director Gus Cook.

"Every facet of the event has been reviewed and improved upon and we are looking forward to staging a spectacular tournament that will help to raise the profile of squash in the US.

"In addition to what I am fairly sure will be the strongest PSA draw anywhere in the Americas in 2010, with the vast majority of the world’s top 16 ranked players entered, the NAO will also be the richest event too when you factor in the $3,000 value of the Tiffany watch that is awarded to the winner of the tournament."

The North American Open is hosted by Virginia Squash and the high-speed action takes place on the all-glass McWil exhibition court which will be erected in the Millhiser Gymnasium on the campus of the University of Richmond.

 

1st round draw:

[1] Ramy Ashour (EGY) v Stephen Coppinger (RSA)

[13] Aamir Atlas Khan (PAK) v Qualifier

[6] Peter Barker (ENG) v Qualifier

[9] Thierry Lincou (FRA) v Farhan Mehboob (PAK)

[3] Amr Shabana (EGY) v Qualifier

[11] Wael El Hindi (EGY) v Qualifier

[8] David Palmer (AUS) v Shahier Razik (CAN)

[14] Olli Tuominen (FIN) v Qualifier

[12] Alister Walker (ENG) v Qualifier

[7] James Willstrop (ENG) v Aaron Frankcomb (AUS)

[15] Joey Barrington (ENG) v Rafael F Alarcon (BRA)

[4] Gregory Gaultier (FRA) v Qualifier

[10] Adrian Grant (ENG) v Simon Rosner (GER)

[5] Karim Darwish (EGY) v Amr Swelim (ITA)

[16] Julian Illingworth (USA) v Qualifier

[2] Nick Matthew (ENG) v Esteban Casarino (PAR)

 

PSA Super Series 2010 rankings (following the JP Morgan Tournament of Champions):

 

Points

1          James Willstrop (ENG)                     100

2          Ramy Ashour (EGY)                              65

3=       Karim Darwish (EGY)                           40

3=       Nick Matthew (ENG)                           40

5=       David Palmer (AUS)                             25

5=       Amr Shabana (EGY)                             25

5=       Wael El Hindi (EGY)                              25

5=       Gregory Gaultier (FRA)                         25

9=       Hisham Mohd Ashour (EGY)              15

9=       Adrian Waller (ENG)                             15

9=       Alister Walker (ENG)                            15

9=       Mohd Ali Anwar Reda (EGY)               15

9=       Simon Rosner (GER)                            15

9=       Stewart Boswell (AUS)                        15

9=       Nicolas Mueller (SUI)                          15

9=       Miguel Angel Rodriguez (COL)           15

 

For more tournament details, please go to www.naosquash.com