England's James Willstrop Confirmed As New World No1
The
top of the Dunlop PSA Men's World Squash Rankings will feature a
new look in January with the confirmation that England's James
Willstrop makes his debut as world number one in the first list of
2012, published on New Year's Day by the Professional Squash
Association.
The
28-year-old from Leeds succeeds England team-mate and fellow
Yorkshireman Nick Matthew, who has headed the world rankings
since January 2011.
It was
a stunning end-of-year run on the PSA World Tour that led
Willstrop, who first reached world No2 six years ago, to overtake his
great rival and become the 17th world No1 of all-time - and the fourth
Englishman, following Matthew, fellow Yorkshireman Lee Beachill,
and Peter Nicol.
Willstrop completed the best four-week run of his career this month in
India when he won the Punj Lloyd PSA Masters in New Delhi -
immediately following World Series title triumphs at the Cathay
Pacific Sun Hung Kai Financial Hong Kong Open and the Kuwait PSA
Cup.
"It's
been a tremendous week since India," said the new world No1. "It came at
a good time as it gave me the opportunity to think about it, to
celebrate it and enjoy it.
"You
work at this for a long time - you aim at the top but when it happens,
it's quite a lot to take in. I'm thrilled to have achieved it.
"The
act of reaching world number one is really satisfying - but the most
satisfying thing about it for me is sharing it with all the people who
have helped me. I am so grateful to them - and without them it wouldn't
have been the same."
Willstrop competes in his first event as world number one next week at
The Queen's Club in London, where he is the top seed in
the ATCO PSA World Series Finals - the flagship PSA event which
features the eight players who have earned the most points from the nine
PSA World Series championships in 2011.
"Being
introduced as 'world number one' at my first event next week in my home
country will be very special - I can't pretend otherwise," added
Willstrop.
"It'll
be magic - it's what dreams are made of!"
Matthew is at two in the January rankings, ahead of Frenchman Gregory
Gaultier at No3, and a trio of Egyptians Ramy Ashour,
Karim Darwish and Mohamed El Shorbagy.
El
Shorbagy, winner of the Macau Open in November, went on to reach
successive World Series semi-finals in both the Kuwait PSA Cup and PSA
Masters - and is celebrating a career-high No6 ranking in the new list.
Dutchman Laurens Jan Anjema and Malaysian Mohd Azlan Iskandar
have both moved up to career-high-equalling positions of 9 and 10,
respectively.
But
also in the list are Egyptian Tarek Momen, who moves up two
places to a best-ever No18, and two top 20 debutants Simon Rosner
and Tom Richards.
Rosner
leaps an impressive five places to take up 19th place - thus becoming
Germany's first top 20 player for more than 16 years. The five-time
German champion achieved last 16 finishes in the last two World Series
events of the year, and at the Kuwait PSA Cup claimed one of the best
scalps of his career when he beat Egypt's Amr Shabana in straight
games.
Richards leads the next wave of top England players and made his senior
international debut in 2011. The 25-year-old from Surrey made the second
round of the PSA Masters after upsetting Egypt's Hisham Mohamed
Ashour.
January 2012 top 20
(inc. points average):
|
|
|
Rank |
Prev |
Player |
Pts |
Ctry |
|
1 |
[2] |
James Willstrop |
1,373 |
ENG |
|
2 |
[1] |
Nick Matthew |
1,299 |
ENG |
|
3 |
[3] |
Gregory Gaultier
|
1,159 |
FRA |
|
4 |
[4] |
Ramy Ashour |
1,073 |
EGY |
|
5 |
[5] |
Karim Darwish |
981 |
EGY |
|
6 |
[8] |
Mohamed El Shorbagy
|
672 |
EGY |
|
7 |
[7] |
Peter Barker |
644 |
ENG |
|
8 |
[6] |
Amr Shabana |
616 |
EGY |
|
9 |
[12] |
Laurens Jan Anjema
|
498 |
NED |
|
10 |
[10] |
Mohd Azlan Iskandar
|
465 |
MAS |
|
11 |
[16] |
Daryl Selby |
370 |
ENG |
|
12 |
[11] |
Thierry Lincou
|
369 |
FRA |
|
13 |
[15] |
Omar Mosaad |
368 |
EGY |
|
14 |
[13] |
Hisham Mohamed Ashour |
348 |
EGY |
|
15 |
[17] |
Alister Walker
|
337 |
BOT |
|
16 |
[18] |
Cameron Pilley
|
320 |
AUS |
|
17 |
[19] |
Adrian Grant |
311 |
ENG |
|
18 |
[20] |
Tarek Momen |
290 |
EGY |
|
19 |
[24] |
Simon Rosner |
277 |
GER |
|
20 |
[21] |
Tom Richards |
276 |
ENG |
|
|
|
