Egypt's former world number one Amr Shabana has reclaimed his place in the top three, according to the new September Dunlop PSA Men's World Squash Rankings published today (Thursday) by the Professional Squash Association.
The 30-year-old left-hander from Giza marked his return to the PSA World Tour after four months in style last month by winning the CIMB Malaysian Open, dropping just two games throughout the 5-star tournament.
The success brought the three-time World Open champion's career title tally to 23 - and has led to his first rise in the rankings since April 2006. Shabana has the opportunity to further improve his ranking following appearances in three major PSA Tour events this month - the Aon US Open in Chicago, then the internationalSPORTgroup British Open in Manchester, and finally in the Super Series Platinum Sky Petrosport Open on home soil in Cairo.
Compatriot Karim Darwish celebrates his ninth successive month as world number one, ahead of Frenchman Gregory Gaultier, who holds onto his career-best position of number two.
And, whilst he retains his career-best fifth position, England's Nick Matthew has narrowed the gap behind world number four Ramy Ashour after reaching last month's Malaysian Open final, the 27th of his career.
Matthew heads a group of five Englishmen in the top 12 - a first. Yorkshire county colleague James Willstrop rises three places to No9, just behind eighth-placed Peter Barker, after making the Malaysian Open semis - and Botswana-born Alister Walker celebrates a career-high No12 position, one place lower than Londoner Adrian Grant.
But the main European success is achieved by Borja Golan, the 26-year-old from Santiago de Compostela who becomes the highest-ranked Spaniard of all-time - moving ahead of nineties star Austin Adarraga - after making his top ten debut at No10. Golan won his 19th Tour title at the Motor City Open in the USA in May, and reached his 27th final in last month's Colombian Open in Bogota.
Golan's breakthrough means that six Europeans are featured in the world top ten.
The two youngest players in the top 20 also celebrate career-best rankings - Pakistan's 19-year-old Aamir Atlas Khan up four places to 14, and 18-year-old Egyptian Mohamed El Shorbagy at 15=.
September top 20 (inc. points average):
1 [1] Karim Darwish EGY 935
2 [2] Gregory Gaultier FRA 873
3 [4] Amr Shabana EGY 735
4 [3] Ramy Ashour EGY 710
5 [5] Nick Matthew ENG 703
6 [6] David Palmer AUS 629
7 [8] Thierry Lincou FRA 473
8 [7] Peter Barker ENG 455
9 [12] James Willstrop ENG 409
10 [11] Borja Golan ESP 388
11 [9] Adrian Grant ENG 363
12 [14] Alister Walker ENG 274
13 [13] Laurens Jan Anjema NED 268
14 [18] Aamir Atlas Khan PAK 256
15= [15] Stewart Boswell AUS 254
15= [17] Mohamed El Shorbagy EGY 254
17 [19] Cameron Pilley AUS 237
18 [20] Olli Tuominen FIN 220
19 [21] Ong Beng Hee MAS 220
20 [10] Wael El Hindi EGY 213