WORLD SQUASH NEWS

Nicol Closes In On World No1 Lincou

France's Thierry Lincou holds onto his No1 position in the new February Dunlop PSA Men's World Squash Rankings, announced today (02 February) by the Professional Squash Association (PSA), but England's Peter Nicol is closing in on his successor with a single place jump to No2.

Lincou was a surprise first round casualty in January's Sheikha Al Saad Kuwait Open - but his remarkable consistency in 2003, including nine successive semi-final berths and five final appearances, enabled the 27-year-old from Paris to hold onto the top position he claimed for the first time last month.

Nicol, however, rapidly put his indifferent success in December's Qatar Classic and World Open behind him as he stormed through the Kuwait field to lift the $65,000 title, the 46th of his career.

Scotland's John White, stopped by England's world junior champion James Willstrop in a major quarter-final upset in Kuwait, slips back to No3 in the February list, while England's Lee Beachill, the Qatar Classic champion; Egypt's World Open champion Amr Shabana; Australia's David Palmer; and Canadian Jonathon Power, hold onto their fourth to seventh positions, respectively.

Yorkshireman Willstrop, at 20 the youngest player in the top twenty, leaps five places to a career-high 13 in the new list after following his dismissal of White by beating Power in five games to reach his first major PSA Tour final.

Egypt's Karim Darwish rises to eight after claiming two PSA titles in January in the USA - the Marsh & McLennan Apawamis Open and EBS Asset Management Dayton Open - and Pakistan's presence in the top twenty is restored by Mansoor Zaman's re-entry at No18.



1 [1] Thierry Lincou FRA
2 [3] Peter Nicol ENG
3 [2] John White SCO
4 [4] Lee Beachill ENG
5 [5] Amr Shabana EGY
6 [6] David Palmer AUS
7 [7] Jonathon Power CAN
8 [9] Karim Darwish EGY
9 [8] Anthony Ricketts AUS
10 [10] Joseph Kneipp AUS
11 [12] Gregory Gaultier FRA
12 [11] Nick Matthew ENG
13 [18] James Willstrop ENG
14 [13] Ong Beng Hee MAS
15 [15] Omar Elborolossy EGY
16 [14] Graham Ryding CAN
17 [16] Mohammed Abbas EGY
18 [21] Mansoor Zaman PAK
19 [17] Paul Price AUS
20 [20] Renan Lavigne FRA


For full list - see www.psa-squash.com/