The battle to be World No.1 in the November PSA World Tour Rankings will enter
crunch time tonight during the semi-finals of the 2014 Delaware Investments US
Open when a triumvirate of players will all be aiming to keep alive their hopes
of occupying the most coveted position in squash.
World Champion Nick Matthew, the current World No.3, World No.2 Mohamed
Elshorbagy and current incumbent Gregory Gaultier all go into final-four action
knowing that nothing less than victory and passage to Saturday's final will
suffice if they are to stand atop the charts when the new rankings come out on
November 1st.
Both 23-year-old Elshorbagy, the only man in the trio not to have previously
held the top ranking, and 34-year-old Matthew know that they must win the
tournament outright to have any chance of taking the No.1 spot from Gaultier,
World No.1 since April, who knows a place in the final is enough for him to
retain his position for an eighth straight month.
"Every player wants to be World No.1," said Elshorbagy. "Players say they just
come here to do well and enjoy themselves but I'm sure they'd enjoy it a lot
more if they could be World No.1.
"You'd rather be number 100 than number two and I'm going to be doing everything
I can to get that ranking during this tournament."
31-year-old Gaultier, from Aix-En-Provence said: "I'm not here with my
calculator checking the points. I'm here to play squash and that's all I'm here
for."
Three-time World Champion Matthew, who takes on four-time World Champion Amr
Shabana in his last four encounter said: "All the talk about rankings has been
about Mohamed and Greg and I'm happy to fly under the radar at the moment.
"A lot has been said about the battle to be number one and rightly so, those two
guys are the best two players around at the moment and I think we're all trying
to get to their level.
"This is my first tournament back after a long summer break after the
Commonwealth Games so I'm taking the pressure off and just enjoying playing my
squash."
2014 Delaware Investments US Open: Semi-final Draw:
[1] Gregory Gaultier (FRA) v [3] Mohamed Elshorbagy (EGY)
[4] Amr Shabana (EGY) v [2] Nick Matthew (ENG)
