As Nicol David stays out in front, French star Camille Serme climbs to six in the world
By HOWARD HARDING – Squash Mad Correspondent
While Malaysia’s Nicol David maintains her healthy lead at the top of an unchanged top five, France’s Camille Serme moves up to No.6 in the May Women’s World Squash Rankings published today by the Women’s Squash Association.
David extends her unbroken reign as world number one to 106 months – ahead of second-placed Egyptian Raneem El Welily; English players Alison Waters and Laura Massaro, at three and four, respectively; and Egypt’s Nour El Tayeb at No.5.
Serme, winner of a seventh successive French National Championship title in February, can credit her May rankings rise to an unexpected semi-final berth in the Windy City Open in February in Chicago, where she was the WSA World Series event’s sixth seed.
Single-position rises see both Emma Beddoes and Nouran Gohar record career-best rankings. Beddoes, the third-highest-ranked English player on the list, moves up to No.13 after winning her 10th and biggest WSA Tour title at the Emerson RC Pro Series in St Louis, USA, in March.
Egyptian teenager Gohar rises to No.15. The 17-year-old from Cairo is the youngest player in the top 20.
An impressive five-place leap sees Salma Hany Ibrahim celebrate a career-high world No.19 ranking while extending to six the number of Egyptians in the world top 20. The 18-year-old from Alexandria already boasts three WSA World Tour titles from four final appearances.
WSA RANKINGS May 2015 top 20 (including points average):
1 [1] Nicol David MAS 3,590
2 [2] Raneem El Welily EGY 2,998
3 [3] Alison Waters ENG 1,540
4 [4] Laura Massaro ENG 1,424
5 [5] Nour El Tayeb EGY 1,380
6 [7] Camille Serme FRA 1,157
7 [8] Low Wee Wern MAS 1,066
8 [9] Omneya Abdel Kawy EGY 996
9 [6] Nour El Sherbini EGY 919
10 [10] Amanda Sobhy USA 852
11 [12] Annie Au HKG 679
12 [13] Rachael Grinham AUS 658
13 [14] Emma Beddoes ENG 623
14 [15] Sarah-Jane Perry ENG 568
15 [16] Nouran Gohar EGY 527
16 [17] Jenny Duncalf ENG 521
17 [18] Madeline Perry IRL 472
18 [11] Dipika Pallikal IND 454
19 [24] Salma Hany Ibrahim EGY 440
20 [20] Nicolette Fernandes GUY 425
For the complete WSA ranking list, see www.wsaworldtour.com