Lucky 13 as Joelle works her way back to the top after injury
By NATHAN CLARKE
New Zealand’s Joelle King has rocketed up 15 positions in the November PSA Women’s World Rankings to occupy the World No.13 berth and move back inside the world’s top 20 players for the first time since January 2015.
The 27-year-old former World No.4 missed almost a year of competitive PSA World Tour action between 2014 and 2015 after suffering a serious Achilles injury.
She found herself as low as No.57 in recent months but after making a successful comeback this summer she has continued to go from strength to strength and reached the final of the Carol Weymuller Open, PSA W50 tournament, in New York in October.
King is one of five big risers within the world’s top twenty with Indian pairing Joshana Chinappa (with King, right) and Dipika Pallikal and Egyptian duo Nour El Tayeb and Heba El Torky also in the midst of upwards trajectories.
Delaware Investments U.S. Open runner-up El Tayeb moves up three positions to equal her career-best World No.5 standing after an impressive run at the PSA World Series event in which she defeated World No.1 Raneem El Welily – who maintains her grasp on the top spot for a third month.
After suffering a shock first round defeat to Chinappa yesterday (Oct 31) at the 2015 Qatar Classic, the second PSA World Series event of the season, El Welily could see the gap between her and the pairing of World No.2 Nicol David and World No.3 Laura Massaro narrow yet further if they can maintain their campaigns and triumph in Doha.
Meanwhile, Chinappa moves up three places to World No.17 with compatriot Pallikal moving up five places to No.14 after her impressive run to the quarter-finals of the U.S. Open and El Torky moves into the top twenty for the first time in her career to hold the No.20 berth.
Read Alex Wan’s exclusive Squash Mad interview with Joelle King here
PSA Women’s World Rankings (November 2015):
Graphic courtesy of PSA