The last time Nick Matthew came to India for the PSA Masters,he was ranked fourth in the world. Finishing runner-up to Egyptian Ramy Ashour in the tournament around the same time last year,Mathew jumped to World No. 2 after the Mumbai edition in 2009. This time around,when he steps onto the Siri Fort Complex court for the 2010 edition of the competition,the Englishman would be looking to go one step better. With Ashour not defending his title because of an injury,Matthew is the top seed here. And a win here will mean that Matthew will nose ahead of Ashour in the close race for the World No.1 spot. We all know Ramy is not participating in the event due to injury problem,which is a massive loss to the event but at the same time it is good as far as my chances are concerned, Matthew admitted on the eve of the tournament. The 2009 edition was his first visit to India and Matthew is looking forward to reliving the experience. But more than the absence of Ashour this time,Matthew is keen to make it a hat-trick of titles here. The Yorkshireman won both the singles and doubles during the Commonwealth Games at the same venue. I am delighted to be back here. I am very much familiar with the Siri Fort Complex and hope to do a good job once again, he said. The PSA Masters,the last of the 10 Super Series events held in a year akin to the Grand Slams in tennis are the highest prize money tournament ever in India with a purse of $192,500. While the absence of top players like Karim Darwish of Egypt,Adrian Grant of England and Gregory Gaultier of France,besides Ashour,has taken some sheen off the event, others willmore than make up for the absentees. Matthew himself is the current World champion,having won the World Open recently,while his competitors in the fray include compatriot and world number four James Willstrop,4-times world champion Egyptian legend Amr Shabana and Australian Cameron Pilley. Indian presence The Indian challenge,meanwhile,will be led by World Number 22 Saurav Ghosal,who got perhaps the biggest boost ahead of the tournament,climbing three positions after his Asian Games bronze. Ghosal had created history by upsetting Pilley in the opening round last year,only to go down to Shabana in Round Two. Up against a qualifier in the opener,Ghosal will run into Shabana again next and will be hoping to do better this time around. Besides Ghosal,Harinder Pal Sandhu (wild card) and Siddarth Suchde (qualifier) will hope to make more than token presence in the competition. WISPA Masters Besides the PSA Masters,the inaugural edition of the $36,500 WISPA Masters will also be held simultaneously at the same venue,and the Indian challenge will be led by Joshna Chinappa and Dipika Pallikal. While world number one Nicol David has pulled out due to personal reasons,the presence of Commonwealth Games semi-finalist Kasey Brown,World no. 2 Jenny Duncalf and World No. 8 Vanessa Atkinson makes the field challenging enough. It has been a great initiative on the part of WISPA for taking the sport to a new level. With corporates coming in,the game is surely going to scale new heights, Brown said.
