Women Adopt Men's Ranking Criteria, David Back in Top 3 from PSA Media August 1, 2016 -
Malaysia’s eight-time World Champion Nicol David will begin the 2016/17
PSA World Tour season ranked World No.3 after the latest PSA Women's
World Rankings were released today (August 1st).
For the first time ever, this month's rankings see both the Men's and
Women's systems adhering to the same criteria as the Professional
Squash Association (PSA) take another step towards fully aligning the
Women's and Men's games.
“Since creating a unified governing body for the administration of both
Men's and Women's squash last year our focus has been on driving the
sport forward and aligning both games across the board,” said PSA Chief
Executive Alex Gough.
“After successfully introducing the lower 17” tin to the Women's game
late last year to address what was one of the main fundamental
differences between the Men’s and Women’s games on court, this latest
step will help to ensure that our off court regulations are also
aligned.
“With more elements across the sport now in sync, we will be better
positioned to continue working towards our goals of increasing both
total prize money and playing opportunities available for both men and
women in squash.”
Prior to 2015's amalgamation between the PSA and the Women's Squash
Association (WSA), both ranking systems were calculated using different
criteria, but both will now adhere to a system that divides the total
number of points a player has accumulated over a 12-month period by the
number of tournaments played to give an average score – with the
Women’s minimum divisor being eight.
The previous Women's system saw the divisor increase incrementally once
10 tournaments had been played, however, the new World Rankings system
sees the divisor stay at eight until 11 tournaments have been played,
at which point it will change to 9 and not increase further until a
player has appeared at 13 tournaments.
Another change to the Women’s World Rankings system is the amount of
World Ranking points available at tournaments. Previously, the maximum
World Ranking points available at a tournament was 5300, for winning
the PSA Women’s World Championship, with a World Series tournament
winner gaining 4800 points.
The maximum points on offer have now been reduced to fall in line with
the Men's system, with the winner of the World Championship set to gain
2890 points and a World Series tournament winner now amassing 2625
points.
The change in system means that David leapfrogs Egypt's Raneem El
Welily to return to the world’s top three for the first time since
March, while World Champion Nour El Sherbini of Egypt stays at No.1,
followed by England’s Laura Massaro.
World Junior Champion Nouran Gohar and France’s Camille Serme stay at
No.5 and No.6, respectively, but United States No.1 Amanda Sobhy falls
one place to No.8, switching places with Omneya Abdel Kawy.
New Zealander Joelle King remains at No.9 and Hong Kong’s Annie Au rounds off the top 10 after two months outside.
Elsewhere, Alison Waters moves up two places to No.11, while India’s
Joshna Chinappa drops out of the top 10 to No.12. England’s Victoria
Lust is up three places to a career-high No.14, while compatriot Jenny
Duncalf falls to No.15.
Emily Whitlock moves down three spots to No.18, with Malaysia's Delia
Arnold rising one place to No.17. 2007 World Champion Rachael Grinham
drops out of the top 20 for only the second time in 19 years and is
replaced by Joey Chan.
