Valokuvaaja Sofia Tapolan squashin maailman rankingykkösiä esittelevä upea näyttely, osa 2/5. Toisena vuorossa on Gregory Gaultier.
Gregory Gaultierin esittely (PSA)
Known for his imposing physical style and unrelenting stamina, Gregory Gaultier is one of the most combative players on the PSA World Tour. Known for his imposing physical style and unrelenting stamina, Gregory Gaultier is one of the most combative players on the PSA World Tour. The Frenchman showed promise from the very start of his career, reaching the final of the World Junior Squash Championship in 2000 before losing to Karim Darwish but he made up for that by winning the 2001 British Junior Open. The enigmatic Frenchman reached the final of the World Championship in 2006 after defeating defending-champion Amr Shabana in the semi-final. Despite going two games up in the final against Australian David Palmer, Gaultier was pegged back and the match eventually ended in a 3-2 loss. He has since lost a further three World Championship finals, in 2007 against Amr Shabana, and in 2011 and 2013, on both occasions losing out to Englishman Nick Matthew.
Gaultier became the first Frenchman ever to win the British Open, in 2007, defeating compatriot Thierry Lincou in the process. He also became the only Frenchman to win the Tournament of Champions when he triumphed over Nick Matthew in 2009’s final.
November 2009 saw Gaultier become World No.1 for the first time, becoming only the second Frenchman to do so, after Lincou, and it would be five years later, in February 2014, before he once again top the world rankings. In 2014 he won both the Windy City Open and British Open, PSA World Series events, while also reaching the final of the Tournament of Champions and the Hong Kong Open.
Gaultier picked up another PSA World Tour title at the Grasshopper Cup in April 2015 but he was denied his third British Open title by Mohamed Elshorbagy a month later as he narrowly lost to the Egyptian in a titanic five-game encounter.