James
Willstrop Rises To Two In New World Rankings
England boasts the top two squash players in the world for the first
time since 2004 with the rise of James Willstrop to second place
in the December Dunlop PSA Men's World Squash Rankings, published
today by the Professional Squash Association.
Willstrop enjoyed the best month of his career in November with stunning
PSA World Series title triumphs in both the Cathay Pacific Sun
Hung Kai Financial Hong Kong Open and Kuwait PSA Cup - the
latter last week giving the 28-year-old from Leeds the biggest win of
his career.
In his
second successive final clash with Karim Darwish, Willstrop
dropped his first game in ten matches in Kuwait before overcoming the
Egyptian in four games to secure his fifth World Series crown since
March 2008.
Fellow
Yorkshireman Nick Matthew completes his first full year as No1 in
the new list. The 31-year-old from Sheffield became the first player for
15 years to successfully defend the World Open title in Rotterdam
last month - and later reached the quarter-finals in Kuwait, but was
then forced to withdraw from the event with an adductor injury.
In the
first PSA world rankings since December 2005 NOT to feature an Egyptian
in the top three, France's Gregory Gaultier leaps two places to
No3 after reaching the World Open final and securing semi-final berths
both in Hong Kong and Kuwait.
Egypt,
however, takes the next three places in the rankings - led by Ramy
Ashour at 4; Karim Darwish at 5, and Amr Shabana in
sixth place.
But
20-year-old Egyptian Mohamed El Shorbagy is in eighth place after
title success in November's Macau Open followed by his first ever
World Series semi-final appearance in Kuwait.
Malaysian Mohd Azlan Iskandar is rewarded for reaching the Hong
Kong Open semi-finals unseeded by rising to a career-equalling-high No10
ranking.
Back-to-back title successes last month in the USA in both the Dayton
Open and Pittsburgh Open have taken Alister Walker to
No17 - his best ranking for well over a year and the highest ever by a
player from Botswana.
|
|
|
Rank |
Prev |
Player |
Pts |
Ctry |
|
1 |
[1] |
Nick Matthew |
1,716 |
ENG |
|
2 |
[3] |
James Willstrop |
1,392 |
ENG |
|
3 |
[5] |
Gregory Gaultier |
1,050 |
FRA |
|
4 |
[2] |
Ramy Ashour |
1,028 |
EGY |
|
5 |
[6] |
Karim Darwish |
980 |
EGY |
|
6 |
[4] |
Amr Shabana |
789 |
EGY |
|
7 |
[7] |
Peter Barker |
644 |
ENG |
|
8 |
[8] |
Mohamed El Shorbagy |
642 |
EGY |
|
9 |
[9] |
David Palmer |
514 |
AUS |
|
10 |
[13] |
Mohd Azlan Iskandar |
465 |
MAS |
|
11 |
[10] |
Thierry Lincou |
449 |
FRA |
|
12 |
[11] |
Laurens Jan Anjema |
442 |
NED |
|
13 |
[14] |
Hisham Mohamed Ashour |
431 |
EGY |
|
14 |
[16] |
Stewart Boswell |
429 |
AUS |
|
15 |
[15] |
Omar Mosaad |
362 |
EGY |
|
16 |
[12] |
Daryl Selby |
360 |
ENG |
|
17
|
[20] |
Alister Walker |
337 |
BOT |
|
18 |
[18] |
Cameron Pilley |
334 |
AUS |
|
19 |
[17] |
Adrian Grant |
297 |
ENG |
|
20 |
[19] |
Tarek Momen |
275 |
EGY |
|
|
|
