Amr Shabana climbs back up to No.5 as Marwan makes it to top 20
By Squash Mad Correspondent
French squash star Gregory Gaultier has remained on top of the PSA World Tour Rankings for the second consecutive month, maintaining a slender advantage over English World No.2 Nick Matthew in the May rankings.
Gaultier, who was joint World No.1 with Matthew in February, regained outright control of top spot in April and remains the No.1 ranked squash player in the world following his semi-final finish at the recent El Gouna International World Series event.
The biggest mover inside the top ten is 34-year-old four-time world champion Amr Shabana, as the Egyptian continues his recent resurgence by climbing three places to world No.5.
Shabana (right) began 2014 ranked World No.9 but victory in January’s Tournament of Champions, semi-final finishes at the Motor City Open, Case Swedish Open and EL Gouna International and honours at the recent Grasshopper Cup have seen him claim his highest ranking since 2011.
Elsewhere in the top 20, Egypt’s Marwan Elshorbagy climbs to a career-high World No.19, breaking into the top 20 for the first time in his career thanks to claiming the runner-up berth at April’s Northern Ontario Open.
‘To be in the top 20 players in the world means a lot to me,” said Elshorbagy.
“The current generation of players is one of the strongest that there has ever been in the history of squash so it feels great to be in the top 20 while they are still playing.
“I have been working very hard for this and to achieve it at such a young age means even more and it will hopefully prove to be a big confidence boost, especially with the British Open coming up.
“I owe a lot to my dad, my mum and my brother because without their support I wouldn’t have done it and my goal now is to keep improving my game and improve my ranking and hopefully I can join the top 10 soon.”
PSA World Rankings Top 20 – May 2014
RANK NAME NATION POINTS
1 Gregory Gaultier FRA 1350.500
2 Nick Matthew ENG 1301.000
3 Mohamed Elshorbagy EGY 1075.000
4 Ramy Ashour EGY 979.000
5 Amr Shabana EGY 694.500
6 James Willstrop ENG 669.000
7 Borja Golan ESP 650.500
8 Peter Barker ENG 554.000
9 Karim Darwish EGY 483.000
10 Daryl Selby ENG 451.000
11 Tarek Momen EGY 437.500
12 Simon Rösner GER 431.000
13 Omar Mosaad EGY 395.000
14 Miguel Angel Rodriguez COL 369.500
15 Saurav Ghosal IND 326.000
16 Laurens Jan Anjema NED 324.500
17 Cameron Pilley AUS 321.000
18 Karim Abdel Gawad EGY 304.00
19 Marwan Elshorbagy EGY 267.000
20 Stephen Coppinger RSA 257.727
For the all the latest from the PSA World Tour visit www.psaworldtour.com