Cuskelly and Gawad hit new heights in rankings

Cuskelly doubles the number of Aussies in the top 20 as Gawad hits top 10
By NATHAN CLARKE

Less than 24 hours after recording one of the finest wins of his career over new World No.8 Mathieu Castagnet in the first round of the 2015 Qatar Classic, PSA World Series tournament, Australian Ryan Cuskelly has broken into the top 20 in the PSA World Rankings for the first time.

The 28-year-old occupies the World No.20 position, one place behind highest ranked compatriot Cameron Pilley, in the PSA November Rankings.

He moves up two places courtesy of his triumph at the Welaptega Bluenose Classic one week ago, when he beat No.4 seed Laurens Jan Anjema in the quarter-finals and No.2 seed Marwan Elshorbagy in the semis. It’s the best Australian showing in the men’s rankings since the retirement of David Palmer and Stewart Boswell.

Cuskelly took the PSA M35 title courtesy of a straight-games win over Egypt’s Karim Abdel Gawad, who also celebrates a career high ranking this month after breaking into the top 10 for the first time in his career – occupying the World No.10 position.

The 24-year-old has been enjoying a rich vein of form so far during the 2015-16 PSA World Tour season and will be hoping to continue that in Doha today (Nov 1) when he takes on compatriot Tarek Momen, the 27-year-old who has fallen out of the top 10 dropping four places to World No.12, in the first round of the Qatar Classic.

Fellow Egyptian Mohamed Elshorbagy has maintained his grasp of the World No.1 position for the 13th consecutive month as part of an unchanged top five.

But World No.2 Gregory Gaultier will now have the top spot in his sights after narrowing the gap following his triumph at the Delaware Investments U.S. Open in Philadelphia.

Elsewhere inside the top 20, Stephen Coppinger and Fares Dessouki both move up to occupy their career best positions of No.14 and No.18, respectively, while Omar Mosaad, Marwan Elshorbagy, Borja Golan and Daryl Selby also enjoy upwards movements.

PSA World Rankings November 2015 (Men’s):

Picture by CAMILLA HOLMVALL (Bluenose Classic). Graphics courtesy of PSA