Gaultier and Ashour withdraw from US Open squash

Bengaluru, October 4: The Professional Squash Association's (PSA) US Open tournament which gets underway on October 7 suffered a major blow when two star players --world No.1 Gregory Gaultier and Egypt's former top-ranked Ramy Ashour -- pulled out citing injuries.

Gaultier, a three-time US Open champion failed to recover from an ankle injury. The 34-year-old had also pulled out of the recent Oracle NetSuite Open due to the same reason.

Infact, the Frenchman has had a reoccurrence of the injury that saw him withdraw from last year's PSA Men's World Championship at the semifinal stage when he was due to face eventual runner-up Ashour.

Ashour, 2012 US Open, cited 'internal illness', meaning Scotsman Alan Clyne and Egypt's Omar Mosaad move into the automatic main draw.

🚨NEWS@RamyAshour & Gaultier OUT of 2017 @USOpenSquash due to injury & illness!!

See how that impacts the draw 👉 https://t.co/zZgld1UZUK pic.twitter.com/u3TUkUAEBj

— PSA World Tour (@PSAWorldTour) October 3, 2017

With the withdrawals of Gaultier and Ashour, defending champion Mohamed El Shorbagy has been given the top billing.

The Egyptian replaces Gaultier in the top half of the draw and will play Australian Cameron Pilley in the first round, while Fares Dessouky, who takes compatriot Ashour' place will play local favourite and tournament wildcard Christopher Gordon.

The US Open is the first PSA Series event of the 2017-18 calendar.

The qualifying rounds will be held on October 5 and 6 and the tournament proper gets underway on October 7 at the Daskalakis Athletic Centre at Drexel University.