While Malaysia's Nicol David maintains her tight grip on the top position in the Women's World Squash Rankings, England's Alison Waters returns to her career-high No5 place as the highest riser in the February list published today (Tuesday) by the Women's International Squash Players' Association (WISPA).

David heads an unchanged group in the top four places, with Dutch star Natalie Grinham in second place; England's Jenny Duncalf at No3; and Rachael Grinham, of Australia, in fourth place.

Alison Waters began the year in fine style, romping through the Harrow Greenwich Open field in the USA to win the WISPA Tour Silver title without dropping a game.  

Vanessa Atkinson, the former world champion from the Netherlands who was a semi-finalist in Greenwich, returns to the top ten at No10 for the first time for over a year.

One place below is France's rising star Camille Serme, the 20-year-old from Creteil, near Paris, who is celebrating a career-high position.

Also up two places is New Zealander Jaclyn Hawkes, the 27-year-old from Auckland who moves to 15 after winning the Chairman's Cup in Hong Kong.

After two months out of the top 20, Egypt's Raneem El Weleily marks her return at No18 after becoming the only unseeded player to make the Greenwich Open semi-finals.

February top 20 (inc. points average):

1    [1]    Nicol David    MAS    2692
2    [2]    Natalie Grinham    NED    1469
3    [3]    Jenny Duncalf    ENG    1460
4    [4]    Rachael Grinham    AUS    1446
5    [6]    Alison Waters    ENG    1351
6    [5]    Natalie Grainger    USA    1146
7    [7]    Omneya Abdel Kawy    EGY    1047
8    [8]    Madeline Perry    IRL    959
9    [9]    Laura Massaro    ENG    910
10    [11]    Vanessa Atkinson    NED    525
11    [12]    Camille Serme    FRA    524
12    [10]    Kasey Brown    AUS    517
13    [13]    Engy Kheirallah    EGY    491
14    [14]    Samantha Teran    MEX    474
15    [17]    Jaclyn Hawkes    NZL    469
16    [15]    Annie Au    HKG    467
17    [16]    Shelley Kitchen    NZL    451
18    [21]    Raneem El Weleily    EGY    434
19    [18]    Isabelle Stoehr    FRA    419
20    [19]    Rebecca Chiu    HKG    419

For the complete WISPA ranking list, see www.wispa.net