Fellow Frenchman Mathieu Castagnet joins Gaultier in world top 20
By Squash Mad Reporter
French ace Gregory Gaultier, the new British Open champion, remains top of the PSA rankings in June.
The top of the PSA charts remain unchanged, with Gaultier maintaining his grasp on the World No.1 ranking for the third consecutive month following his impressive romp to victory at the Allam British Open in May.
Gaultier beat England’s World No.2 Nick Matthew in the final of the ‘Wimbledon of Squash’ while Egyptian pair Mohamed Elshorbagy and Ramy Ashour, the No.3 and No.4 respectively, bowed out at the semi-final stages.
The 27-year-old French player Mathieu Castagnet (right) is the biggest mover within the top 20, rising five places from World No.23 to break into the top 20 for the first time in his career to occupy the World No.18.
Castagnet claimed one of the biggest scalps of his career as he beat Borja Golan en-route to a quarter-final finish at the British Open, his best placing at a World Series event since the 2013 US Open.
“Since I started playing squash, I have always worked really hard to be on top of the rankings,” said Castagnet.
“I never been a natural squash talent but I am someone who is a fighter on court and I have trained hard and kept going for the past few years so to reach the top 20 is a great reward, a gift and a dream.
“To be on top of the rankings you have to train hard all year, all day every day. You need to have a good diet, manage your body, work your games plans and your technical aspects – it’s just like a job.
“We play between 10 and 13 tournaments a year and you cannot be strong for only one or two tournaments. You have to be consistent at a strong level and I would like to thanks Arnaud Hays, Renan Lavigne, Olivier Guidi, Christophe Labit and Joel Coste for all their support in helping me.”
PSA World Rankings – June 2014
RANK NAME NATION POINTS UP/DOWN
1 Gregory Gaultier FRA 1440.500 =
2 Nick Matthew ENG 1368.500 =
3 Mohamed Elshorbagy EGY 1131.000 =
4 Ramy Ashour EGY 821.500 =
5 Amr Shabana EGY 758.500 =
6 James Willstrop ENG 628.000 =
7 Borja Golan ESP 615.500 =
8 Peter Barker ENG 546.500 =
9 Karim Darwish EGY 456.500 =
10 Daryl Selby ENG 451.000 =
11 Simon Rösner GER 415.000 ↑1
12 Tarek Momen EGY 411.000 ↓1
13 Omar Mosaad EGY 409.545 =
14 Miguel Angel Rodriguez COL 358.500 =
15 Laurens Jan Anjema NED 324.500 ↑1
16 Saurav Ghosal IND 307.500 ↓1
17 Karim Abdel Gawad EGY 285.500 ↑1
18 Mathieu Castagnet FRA 284.500 ↑5
19 Cameron Pilley AUS 276.000 ↓2
20 Marwan Elshorbagy EGY 267.000 ↓1
Picture by allambritishopensquash.com/