MANCHESTER, Sept 19: The chances of a first Gallic winner of the British Open are the best in its long history at the famous event which starts here on Thursday at the English national squash centre.

For the first time two Frenchman are seeded to reach the semi-finals; the current form of Thierry Lincou and Gregory Gaultier also suggests they are amongst those capable of taking the 75-year-old title.

Lincou, already the first Frenchman to win the World Open and the first to become world number one, looks refreshed enough to achieve another notable first on the evidence of last week’s warm-up tournament, the English Grand Prix at Birmingham, where he reached the final.

Gaultier, the holder of five memorable match points at last year’s World Open in Cairo, produced his best performance of the year in reaching the final of last month’s Super Series tour-end championship in Manchester.

If either wins the British Open title, as they could, it will be with high profile timing because the tournament has received a major upgrade, elevating it closer to its former pre-eminent status.

It has prize money of more than $100,000, its highest for several years, and has agreed a new five-year deal which involves further boosts both to prize money and to its Super Series status.

He could have a second round against Mohammed Abbas, the unpredictably gifted top 20 Egyptian, and a quarter-final against Stewart Boswell, the eighth-seeded Australian who has fought back brilliantly from career-threatening back injury.

Among them is Amr Shabana, the top-seeded world number one whom Gaultier beat in a sensational World Open semi-final and whom he is seeded to meet again in the semi-finals.

The man from Aix-en-Provence has since beaten Shabana twice more - in the Hongkong quarter-finals and the US Open final - and may fancy his chances again if he survives a likely quarter-final with another Egyptian, Wael El Hindi, the seventh seed.

Seeds:-

1, Amr Shabana (EGY); 2, David Palmer (AUS); 3, Gregory Gaultier (FRA); 4, Thierry Lincou (FRA); 5, James Willstrop (ENG); 6, Nick Matthew (ENG); 7, Wael El Hindi (EGY); 8, Stewart Boswell (AUS).—AFP