David Extends World Number 1 Ranking to 93 Months by Howard Harding April 2, 2014
- While England's new World Champion Laura Massaro closes the gap
behind predecessor Nicol David in the latest April Women's World Squash
Rankings, it is the Malaysian who continues to hold pole position in
the list published today by the Women's Squash Association (WSA).
David, the 30-year-old
from Penang who missed out on a record eighth title in front of a huge
home crowd in last month's Penang CIMB Women's World Championship,
extends to 93 months her unbroken reign as world No1 since August 2006.
But Massaro, who
wrested the title from the Penangite to become England's first world
champion for 15 years, has edged closer to David to begin a second year
as world number two.
Egypt's Raneem El
Welily also maintains her position as the world No3 - while Joelle King
jumps to a career-high No4 to become the highest-ranked New Zealander
for more than ten years.
The 25-year-old from
Cambridge won the seventh Tour title of her career in January at the
Greenwich Open - and last month reached the world championship
quarter-finals for the first time.
But it is Egyptian
teenager Nour El Sherbini who celebrates the most astonishing rise in
the April rankings. At 27 in last month's rankings, the 18-year-old
from Alexandria appeared in the Penang World Championship unseeded -
then proceeded to dismiss a succession of higher-ranked players
including fifth seed Joelle King and the No4 seed Alison Waters, before
claiming the biggest scalp of all in Nicol David to become the youngest
finalist in the 35-year history of the event.
The run sees El Sherbini leap 14 places to No13.
US star Amanda Sobhy
also records a best-ever ranking. The 20-year-old Pan American champion
from New York, a full-time student at Harvard University, picked up her
11th WSA Tour title at the Granite Club Open in Canada last month and
rises two places to No15.
April top 20 (inc. points average): 1 [1] Nicol David MAS 3,346 2 [2] Laura Massaro ENG 2,555 3 [3] Raneem El Welily EGY 1,754 4 [5] Joelle King NZL 1,176 5 [4] Alison Waters ENG 1,036 6 [6] Camille Serme FRA 1,031 7 [7] Low Wee Wern MAS 901 8 [8] Madeline Perry IRL 786 9 [9] Annie Au HKG 763 10 [10] Jenny Duncalf ENG 722 11 [13] Omneya Abdel Kawy EGY 634 12 [11] Dipika Pallikal IND 631 13 [27] Nour El Sherbini EGY 627 14 [14] Kasey Brown AUS 571 15 [17] Amanda Sobhy USA 522 16 [15] Rachael Grinham AUS 516 17 [12] Natalie Grinham NED 482 18 [16] Sarah-Jane Perry ENG 444 19 [20] Nicolette Fernandes GUY 401 20 [18] Nour El Tayeb EGY 395
