With more than half of the top ten seeds in the 2010 HH Sheikh Saad Abdullah Al-Sabah Trophy, The Patriarch Amir, Kuwait Open having held the world number one ranking in their careers, the $172,500 PSA Super Series squash event due to take place on Green Island from 28 October to 2 November promises to be one of the most competitive ever seen in the country.
The 2010 Kuwait Open, the eighth Super Series event of the year, provides the climax of the first year of a three-year agreement between Sheikha Fadia Al-Sabah of Kuwait and the Professional Squash Association which guarantees nine PSA World Tour events in the Middle East country over the period.
The Kuwait Open has been a leading annual event on the PSA Tour since first backed by Sheikha Fadia Al-Sabah in 2004 - and will continue to be a popular Middle East stop-off on the Tour's flagship PSA Super Series.
Under Sheikha Fadia's guidance, Kuwait hosted the 2009 Men's World Open - a star-studded championship which was staged at the Green Island Resort and boasted a world record $277,500 prize-fund.
England's Nick Matthew is seeded to win his fourth Super Series event of the year at the Kuwait Open. The world No2 from Sheffield will face Cameron Pilley, the Australian No2, in the opening round - and is expected to line up against second seed Ramy Ashour, the Egyptian who succeeded him as world No1 this month, in the final.
But the draw predicts that Matthew may have first to overcome distinguished Egyptian Amr Shabana in the semi-finals. The 31-year-old from Cairo won his fourth World Open title last year in Green Island, and was the previous year's Kuwait Open champion.
Indeed in both cases Shabana defeated Ashour in the finals - and lost out to his younger compatriot in the 2007 final!
Rising star Abdullah Almezayen single-handedly represents local interest in the championship. The 22-year-old left-hander faces a tough first round opponent in fifth-seeded Frenchman Gregory Gaultier - one of seven former world number ones in the event who was runner-up to Ramy Ashour in the most recent Super Series event, the ROWE British Grand Prix in Manchester.
Kuwait Open 1st round draw:
[1] Nick Matthew (ENG) v Cameron Pilley (AUS)
[9] Daryl Selby (ENG) v Jonathan Kemp (ENG)
[5] Gregory Gaultier (FRA) v Abdullah Almezayen (KUW)
[15] Adrian Grant (ENG) v [Q] Nicolas Mueller (SUI)
[3] Amr Shabana (EGY) v Stewart Boswell (AUS)
[10] David Palmer (AUS) v [Q] Ryan Cuskelly (AUS)
[8] Peter Barker (ENG) v [Q] Borja Golan (ESP)
[16] Alister Walker (ENG) v Olli Tuominen (FIN)
[13] Mohamed El Shorbagy (EGY) v Ong Beng Hee (MAS)
[6] James Willstrop (ENG) v Aamir Atlas Khan (PAK)
[11] Wael El Hindi (EGY) v [Q] Saurav Ghosal (IND)
[4] Karim Darwish (EGY) v [Q] Mark Krajcsak (HUN)
[14] Mohd Azlan Iskandar (MAS) v [Q] Mohammed Abbas (EGY)
[7] Thierry Lincou (FRA) v [Q] Mohd Ali Anwar Reda (EGY)
[12] Laurens Jan Anjema (NED) v [Q] Omar Abdel Aziz (EGY)
[2] Ramy Ashour (EGY) v Omar Mosaad (EGY)
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