WORLD SQUASH NEWS Pohrer Powers To Pole Position In an unexpected development in the new June Women's World Squash Rankings, announced today (02 June) by the Women's International Squash Players' Association (WISPA), USA's Natalie Pohrer has replaced New Zealand's Carol Owens as world No1 to head the list for the first time in her career. Although Owens has dominated in the initial months this year she has only played six ranking events in the last twelve months. But Pohrer beat Owens in the World Open semi-finals in November - and over the course of the twelve-month ranking period, the American reached seven Tour finals, winning two. "Although Carol is playing well this year, she has lost pole position to Natalie Pohrer for a combination of reasons," commented WISPA Director Andrew Shelley. "Firstly, all the players try to ensure they play eight plus events as anything less than eight sees the points earned divided by eight. Carol has played six, including one in February which was a medium points level event. Added to that, she went out to Pohrer in the semis of the World Open in Qatar, our biggest points-earning event of the year." Cruelly, while Owens will add to her event tally with appearances in this month's Heliopolis Open and Hurghada International, Pohrer has been forced to withdraw from both Egyptian events as a result of a flu virus. Several further career-best achievements are featured in the June list: Australia's Rachael Grinham rises one place to a best-ever No3 - and immediately endorsed her new status by registering a first-time win over England's Linda Charman, whom she succeeded, in the Heliopolis semi-finals in Cairo. England's Jenny Tranfield also continues her upward progress by moving to a best-ever No9, becoming the fourth-placed Englishwoman for the first time - behind No4 Charman, No6 Tania Bailey and No7 Rebecca Macree. Egypt's 17-year-old Omneya Abdel Kawy rises to an all-time high No12 while France's Isabelle Stoehr, winner of both the Carcassone Open and Brest Open in her home country last month, leaps to a best-ever No15. In addition to Hong Kong's Asian Games champion Rebecca Chiu's rise to a career-high No18, Malaysia's Sharon Wee celebrates her top twenty debut at 20. 1 [2] Natalie Pohrer USA 2 [1] Carol Owens NZL 3 [4] Rachael Grinham AUS 4 [3] Linda Charman ENG 5 [6] Vanessa Atkinson NED 6 [5] Tania Bailey ENG 7 [7] Rebecca Macree ENG 8 [8] Natalie Grinham AUS 9 [10] Jenny Tranfield ENG 10 [11] Fiona Geaves ENG 11 [9] Cassie Jackman ENG 12 [13] Omneya Abdel Kawy EGY 13 [12] Stephanie Brind ENG 14 [14] Vicky Botwright ENG 15 [18] Isabelle Stoehr FRA 16 [17] Shelley Kitchen NZL 17 [15] Pamela Nimmo SCO 18 [20] Rebecca Chiu HKG 19 [19] Madeline Perry IRL 20 [23] Sharon Wee MAS