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| November 25, 2003 | Tuesday | Ramazan 29, 1424 |
Palmer bids to defend World Open title
LAHORE, Nov 24: Australian David Palmer faces Italian Davide Bianchetti in the first round in his bid to become the first player in seven years to win back-to-back World Open titles in next month’s tournament, Players Squash Association announced on Monday.
Pakistan’s own Jansher Khan was the last player to recover world titles when he claimed the honour in Cyprus in 1995 and then in Karachi the following year.
The 25th edition of the annual World Open is scheduled to be held in Lahore from Dec 14-21 with US$170,000 in offer as prize money.
The 27-year-old Palmer won his first world title in his adopted home town of Antwerp, Belgium in December last year and since then defended his British Open title last month.
Palmer is due to meet compatriot Anthony Ricketts in the quarterfinals if all goes right for him in the first three rounds and then clash with top seed and world number one Peter Nicol of England in the semifinal.
Nicol, winner in 1999, faces Hisham Mohammad Ashour of Egypt in the first round.
World number two and second seed John White of the Scotland plays Jean-Michel Arcucci of France in the first round while new world number four Jonathan Power of Canada squares off with local boy Shahid Zaman in the first round.
Power won the Canadian open earlier this month.
Top 56 players directly enter the main rounds while eight players get a berth from the qualifying round which preceded the main rounds.
Pakistan, once a dominant force in the sport with Jahangir Khan (six world titles) and Jansher (eight world titles), has only three players — Mansoor Zaman, Shahid and Farrukh Zaman — in the main rounds.—AFP
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