Boosted by last month's success in the biggest PSA World Tour event of the year so far, Egypt's Karim Darwish has extended his lead at the top of the new October Dunlop PSA Men's World Squash Rankings, published today by the Professional Squash Association.
Darwish's appearance in the climax of the Super Series Platinum Sky Open in his home town of Cairo marked his second Tour final appearance since becoming world number one in January – but gave the 28-year-old his first title triumph when he beat French rival Gregory Gaultier in a thrilling five-game marathon.
Gaultier strengthens his grip on second place in the list – ahead of Egyptians Amr Shabana and Ramy Ashour, who remain at three and four, respectively.
Victory in last month's internationalSPORTgroup British Open in Manchester tightens Englishman Nick Matthew's hold on fifth place in the list, while Australia's David Palmer is in sixth place.
Ankle surgery in April led James Willstrop to drop out of the top ten in the middle of the year. But a sensational comeback run by the Englishman, including semi-final berths in the CIMB Malaysian Open and Sky Open and his second successive appearance in the final of the British Open, has pushed Willstrop up to seven in the new list.
But two more Egyptians are also celebrating notable rises – Wael El Hindi leaping seven places to No13 after reaching the Sky Open quarter-finals, against the odds; and 18-year-old Mohamed El Shorbagy, who continues his meteoric rise up the rankings to register a career-best No 14.
While Ong Beng Hee holds his top 20 position at 19, fellow Malaysian Mohd Azlan Iskandar returns to the elite group by jumping three places to 20.
Of further interest in the full PSA ranking list – which features more than 450 players from all over the world – is that players in the top 50 represent a record 20 nations.
October top 20 (inc. points average):
1 [1] Karim Darwish EGY 1154
2 [2] Gregory Gaultier FRA 929
3 [3] Amr Shabana EGY 871
4 [4] Ramy Ashour EGY 855
5 [5] Nick Matthew ENG 778
6 [6] David Palmer AUS 586
7 [9] James Willstrop ENG 513
8 [7] Thierry Lincou FRA 483
9 [8] Peter Barker ENG 416
10 [11] Adrian Grant ENG 381
11 [10] Borja Golan ESP 352
12 [12] Alister Walker ENG 344
13 [20] Wael El Hindi EGY 290
14 [15] Mohamed El Shorbagy EGY 278
15 [13] Laurens Jan Anjema NED 273
16 [15] Stewart Boswell AUS 253
17 [17] Cameron Pilley AUS 248
18 [14] Aamir Atlas Khan PAK 247
19 [19] Ong Beng Hee MAS 238
20 [23] Mohd Azlan Iskandar MAS 233
For full list – see www.psa-squash.com