WORLD SQUASH NEWS

White Moves To Two In World Rankings

Scotland's John White moved up to a career-high No2 in the new October Dunlop PSA Men's World Rankings, published at the beginning of the month by the Professional Squash Association (PSA).

England's Peter Nicol extended his reign at No1 while Australia's newly-crowned British 0pen champion David Palmer slipped to 3.

White is based in Nottingham, in England, where he suffered a shock British Open quarter-final defeat last week.  But it was his earlier success on the PSA Tour - featuring runners-up berths in December's World Open and February's Swedish Open, and title victories in the PSA Masters and  English Open, which have produced this long-awaited rise.

Australian Anthony Ricketts also celebrates a career-best position in the new list, moving up to 6.  The 24-year-old from Brisbane powerfully demonstrated his new status at the Albert Hall in Nottingham by despatching White in an enthralling five-game British Open clash.

French squash is given a lift on the eve of the Men's World Team Championship by the two-place rise of Gregory Gaultier to a best-ever world No11 ranking.  The youngest player in the world top twenty, Gaultier extended his PSA Tour title haul to seven last month after lifting the CNS International trophy in Pakistan.

Days after hearing that he had been selected to make his senior debut for England in this month's World Championship in Austria, Nick Matthew celebrated his world top twenty debut with a four-place leap to 20.  The 23-year-old from Sheffield achieved quarter-final berths against the odds in both the Prince English Open and US Open over the past two months.

1 [1] Peter Nicol ENG
2 [3] John White SCO
3 [2] David Palmer AUS
4 [5] Thierry Lincou FRA
5 [4] Jonathon Power CAN
6 [7] Anthony Ricketts AUS
7 [8] Ong Beng Hee MAS
8 [9] Karim Darwish EGY
9 [6] Stewart Boswell AUS
10 [10] Lee Beachill ENG
11 [13] Gregory Gaultier FRA
12 [12] Amr Shabana EGY
13 [11] Joseph Kneipp AUS
14 [14] Martin Heath SCO
15 [15] Mansoor Zaman PAK
16 [18] Simon Parke ENG
17 [19] Graham Ryding CAN
18 [17] Alex Gough WAL
19 [16] Mark Chaloner ENG
20 [24] Nick Matthew ENG