Amr Shabana Extends Reign As World Number One
Egypt's Amr
Shabana begins the New Year as world No1, extending his
reign into a 22nd successive month at the top of
the Dunlop
PSA Men's World Squash Rankings,
according to the January list published by the
Professional Squash Association.
The 28-year-old
from Giza, near Cairo, recorded his best ever year in 2007 -
winning six
PSA Tour
titles, all of which were Super Series events,
culminating in the Endurance World Open in Bermuda,
where he became the first player to win the sport's most
prestigious trophy three times since the legendary
Jansher Khan.
Left-hander
Shabana first topped the rankings in April 2006 - and was
honoured in December as the
PSA Player of the Year
for the second successive year.
Despite being
out of action for the final two major events of last year
(nursing a foot injury), fellow Egyptian Ramy Ashour
remains at No2 in the world rankings.
A second
successive runner-up berth in last month's World Open failed
to lift Gregory Gaultier above third place in the New
Year list. The Frenchman is ahead of Australia's David
Palmer and England's Nick Matthew, at four and
five, respectively.
James Willstrop,
who beat compatriot Matthew in the final of last month's
Mamut English Open, remains at No6 in an unchanged top
eight listing.
Englishman
Peter Barker, the 24-year-old left-hander from Essex who
clinched victory for his country in December's final of the
World Team Championships, marks his fourth 'personal
best' ranking in six months with a rise to No12 in the
January list.
Lower in the standings, Dutchman Laurens Jan Anjema also
registers a career-high world ranking at 19. The 25-year-old
from The Hague picked up two Tour titles in the year in the
USA, at the Oregon Open and Baltimore City Open.
And veteran
campaigner Alex Gough marks a welcome return to the
top twenty after almost a year out of it. The 37-year-old
Welshman reached the Bermuda World Open quarter-finals
unseeded - his best result in the event since 1998 - and is
rewarded with a world No20 ranking.
Also of note in
the New Year rankings is the growth of the geographical
spread of the players: Ten nations are represented in the
world top 20 (an increase on one from the January 2007 list)
- while players in the PSA world top 50 hail from a total of
20 countries (three more than twelve months ago).
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] John White SCO
10
[9] Wael El Hindi EGY
11
[12] Lee Beachill ENG
12
[13] Peter Barker ENG
13
[15] Stewart Boswell AUS
14
[14] Mohammed Abbas EGY
15
[18] Mohd Azlan Iskandar MAS
16
[16] Ong Beng Hee MAS
17
[17] Olli Tuominen FIN
18
[19] Adrian Grant ENG
19
[20] Laurens Jan Anjema NED
20
[25] Alex Gough WAL
