Bristol-based Egyptian takes a step closer to ruling the world
After an emphatic start to the 2014-15 PSA World Tour season in which he has already claimed a hat-trick of tournaments including the prestigious Hong Kong Squash Open, CIMB Malaysian Open and Abierto Mexicano de Racquets titles, Egyptian Mohamed Elshorbagy has risen to a career-high World No.2 in the October PSA World Tour Rankings.Â
“Being the World No.2 is great and another step towards my ultimate goals,” said Elshorbagy.
“However to be the number two in the rankings has never been a goal for me. My sights are set higher than that and I have a big chance to take Gregory Gaultier off the top ranking at the US Open.
“He will have to do a lot of work there to protect his ranking as I won’t let that chance slip away easily and I’m very hungry to keep improving.”
Elshorbagy is just one of four Egyptian who climb up the rankings in October, with his younger brother Marwan joining Omar Mosaad and Karim Darwish in building on their September rankings.
Marwan rises two places to No.15 with Mossad up three places to No.11 while Darwish, who dropped out of the top ten for the first time since 2007 in the September rankings, returns to the elite list to occupy the No.10 slot at the expense of compatriot Tarek Momen who falls three places to No.12.
Further movement inside the top ten sees China Open winner and Commonwealth Games silver medalist James Willstrop rise one place to occupy the No.6 ranking with fellow English Commonwealth Games competitor Daryl Selby matching his career-best ranking of World No.9, which he last held in September 2010.
Elsewhere in the rankings, Chinese player Junjie Wang is the biggest riser in October, jumping an impressive 272 places to occupy the No.174 spot.
RANK [PREV] NAME HWR [DATE] COUNTRY AGE
1 1 Gregory Gaultier 1 Nov 2009 FRA 31
2 3 Mohamed Elshorbagy 2 Oct 2014 EGY 23
3 2 Nick Matthew 1 Jun 2010 ENG 34
4 4 Ramy Ashour 1 Jan 2010 EGY 27
5 5 Amr Shabana 1 Apr 2006 EGY 35
6 7 James Willstrop 1 Jan 2012 ENG Â 31
7 6 Borja Golan 5 Apr 2014 ESP 31
8 8 Peter Barker 5 Dec 2012 ENG Â 31
9 10 Daryl Selby 9 Apr 2010 ENG 31
10 11 Karim Darwish 1 Jan 2009 EGY Â 33
11 14 Omar Mosaad 8 Dec 2012 EGY 26
12 9 Tarek Momen 9 Sep 2014 EGY 26
13 12 Simon Rösner 11 Feb 2014 GER 26
14 13 Miguel Angel Rodriguez 13 Dec 2013 CO 28
15 17 Marwan Elshorbagy 15 Oct 2014 EGY 21
16 15 Laurens Jan Anjema 9 Dec 2010 NED 31
17 16 Saurav Ghosal 15 Dec 2013 IND 28
18 18 Karim Abdel Gawad 16 Jan 2014 EGY 23
19 19 Mathieu Castagnet 18 Jun 2014 FRA Â 27
20 20 Max Lee 20 Sep 2014 HKG 26
MOHAMED ELSHORBAGY PROFILE
PSA Ranking: 2
Birthdate:12 January 1991 (age: 23)
Birthplace: Alexandria
Residence: Bristol, England
Height: 185cm (6′ 1″)
Weight: 82kg (12st 13lb)
Plays: Right-handed
Joined PSA: 2006
Turned Pro: 2006
Coaches: Jonah Barrington, Hadrian Stiff
Highest WR:2 (October 2014)
Club:Smouha, Bristol
Racket: Tecnifibre
Twitter: @MoElshorbagy
Fact File courtesy of www.squashinfo.com
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