Just 24 hours world number two Gregory Gaultier pulled out of the next week's Saudi International with a thigh injury, defending champion Karim Darwish has now been forced to withdraw from the final PSA World Tour Super Series squash event of the year after failing to recover from a back injury.
The Egyptian, who succeeded Gaultier as world number one this month, was top seed in the $250,000 championship which will take place for the fifth year in Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia, from 13-18 December.
The failure of the world's top two players to compete in the year's second biggest ranking event of the year will almost certainly now produce a new world number one in the January 2010 PSA World Squash Rankings.
The three likely contenders are Egyptians Ramy Ashour, winner of this week's Punj Lloyd PSA Masters in India and a former world number two, and Amr Shabana, the reigning World Open champion and a former world No1 for 33 months – together with Englishman Nick Matthew, the world No4 who was runner-up in Mumbai.
Ramy Ashour, runner-up in 2007, becomes top seed in Darwish's absence - with Shabana, champion in 2006 and 2007, moving up to the second seed position. Nick Matthew becomes third seed while Australian David Palmer, a semi-finalist for the past three years, is promoted to fourth seed
Today's revised 1st round draw:
[2] Amr Shabana (EGY) v [Q] Joey Barrington (ENG)
[15] Aamir Atlas Khan (PAK) v [Q] Saurav Ghosal (IND)
[8] Adrian Grant (ENG) v Amr Swelim (ITA)
[14] Farhan Mehboob (PAK) v [Q] Stephane Galifi (ITA)
[3] Nick Matthew (ENG) v [Q] Omar Mosaad (EGY)
[9] James Willstrop (ENG) v Olli Tuominen (FIN)
[7] Wael El Hindi (EGY) v Davide Bianchetti (ITA)
[11] Laurens Jan Anjema (NED) v [Q] Jonathan Kemp (ENG)
[10] Ong Beng Hee (MAS) v [Q] Aaron Frankcomb (AUS)
[6] Thierry Lincou (FRA) v [Q] Mohd Ali Anwar Reda (EGY)
[16] Stewart Boswell (AUS) v Tom Richards (ENG)
[4] David Palmer (AUS) v Cameron Pilley (AUS)
[13] Mohamed El Shorbagy (EGY) v Stephen Coppinger (RSA)
[5] Peter Barker (ENG) v Naif Abureqah (KSA)
[12] Alister Walker (ENG) v [Q] Daryl Selby (ENG)
[1] Ramy Ashour (EGY) v Hisham Mohd Ashour (EGY)