While Nicol David, of Malaysia,
retains the number one position - extending her unbroken reign at
the top to 19 months - Samantha Teran makes her debut in the
top 20 to become the first ever Mexican to feature in the elite
women's list.
The 26-year-old from Mexico City, a
three times Pan American champion, has made significant
strides on the WISPA World Tour over recent months - winning
the Southport Open and Toronto Open in North America
last year, and striking success in the Liberty Bell Open last
month in Philadelphia, USA, to bring her Tour haul to eight titles.
The countries represented in the world
top 20 now feature Malaysia, Australia, USA, England, New
Zealand, Egypt, Netherlands, Hong Kong, Ireland, France and
Mexico.
"It's wonderful to welcome Samantha -
and Mexico - into our world top 20 for the first time and see the
growing impact of women's squash around the world," said WISPA Chief
Executive Andrew Shelley. "With new women's events recently
in new squash nations such as Iceland, Portugal, Iran, China and
South Korea, we will soon be looking forward to extending even
further our reach of top 20 players from our ever-increasing
international membership."
New Zealander Shelley Kitchen
also has much to celebrate in the new list - after jumping three
places to a career-best No7 ranking. After winning four WISPA Tour
titles last year, the 28-year-old from Auckland got her 2008
campaign off to a positive start by claiming the Greenwich Open
crown in January - the biggest Tour title of Kitchen's 12 to date.
1 [1] Nicol
David MAS
2 [2] Natalie
Grinham AUS
3 [3] Rachael
Grinham AUS
4 [4] Natalie
Grainger USA
5 [5] Tania
Bailey ENG
6 [6] Vicky
Botwright ENG
7 [10] Shelley
Kitchen NZL
8 [7] Jenny
Duncalf ENG
9 [8] Omneya
Abdel Kawy EGY
10 [9] Vanessa
Atkinson NED
11 [12] Alison Waters
ENG
12 [11] Laura
Lengthorn-Massaro ENG
13 [14] Rebecca Chiu
HKG
14 [13] Madeline
Perry IRL
15 [15] Kasey Brown
AUS
16 [16] Engy
Kheirallah EGY
17 [19] Annelize
Naude NED
18 [18] Jaclyn
Hawkes NZL
19 [17] Isabelle
Stoehr FRA
20 [22] Samantha
Teran MEX
Amr Shabana Holds Onto
World Number One Ranking
Despite being out
of action throughout the first month of the New Year, Egypt's
Amr Shabana maintains his grip on the world number one
ranking, according to the February Dunlop
PSA Men's World Squash Rankings,
published today (Monday) by the Professional Squash
Association.
While the
28-year-old from Cairo has been recovering from acute tendonitis
in his wrist, his compatriot Ramy Ashour picked up the
first
PSA Super Series
title of the year - winning the Bear
Stearns Tournament of Champions in New York to cement his
place in second place in the list. The pair are expected to
meet head-to-head in the final of the Pace Canadian Classic
later in the month in Toronto.
England's James
Willstrop, runner-up in New York,
also fails to move from sixth place - but is now less than a
point behind compatriot Nick Matthew, the No5 behind
third-placed Frenchman Gregory Gaultier and No4 David
Palmer, from Australia.
Egypt's Wael El Hindi is the highest mover, returning to
his career-high ninth place after reaching the Tournament of
Champions' quarter-finals.
Englishman Lee Beachill, who makes his first PSA Tour
appearance this year at the Case Swedish Open next week
after undergoing hernia surgery early in the New Year, returns
to the top ten - at 10 - for the first time for almost a year.
A three-place jump
to 15 is achieved this month by
Adrian Grant,
the English left-hander who won the Comfort Inn Open in
Vancouver last month.
1 [1] Amr Shabana EGY
2 [2] Ramy Ashour EGY
3 [3] Gregory Gaultier FRA
4 [4] David Palmer AUS
5 [5] Nick Matthew ENG
6 [6] James Willstrop ENG
7 [7] Thierry Lincou FRA
8 [8] Karim Darwish EGY
9 [10] Wael El Hindi EGY
10 [11] Lee Beachill ENG
11 [9] John White SCO
12 [12] Peter Barker ENG
13 [14] Mohammed Abbas EGY
14 [13] Stewart Boswell AUS
15 [18] Adrian Grant ENG
16 [15] Mohd Azlan Iskandar MAS
17 [17] Olli Tuominen FIN
18 [16] Ong Beng Hee MAS
19 [19] Laurens Jan Anjema NED
20 [20] Alex Gough WAL
