In a breakthrough new Women's World Squash Rankings, published for February by the Women's International Squash Players' Association (WISPA), the number of countries represented by players in the top 20 rises to an all-time high of 11.

While Nicol David, of Malaysia, retains the number one position - extending her unbroken reign at the top to 19 months - Samantha Teran makes her debut in the top 20 to become the first ever Mexican to feature in the elite women's list. 

The 26-year-old from Mexico City, a three times Pan American champion, has made significant strides on the WISPA World Tour over recent months - winning the Southport Open and Toronto Open in North America last year, and striking success in the Liberty Bell Open last month in Philadelphia, USA, to bring her Tour haul to eight titles.

The countries represented in the world top 20 now feature Malaysia, Australia, USA, England, New Zealand, Egypt, Netherlands, Hong Kong, Ireland, France and Mexico.

"It's wonderful to welcome Samantha - and Mexico - into our world top 20 for the first time and see the growing impact of women's squash around the world," said WISPA Chief Executive Andrew Shelley.  "With new women's events recently in new squash nations such as Iceland, Portugal, Iran, China and South Korea, we will soon be looking forward to extending even further our reach of top 20 players from our ever-increasing international membership."

New Zealander Shelley Kitchen also has much to celebrate in the new list - after jumping three places to a career-best No7 ranking.  After winning four WISPA Tour titles last year, the 28-year-old from Auckland got her 2008 campaign off to a positive start by claiming the Greenwich Open crown in January - the biggest Tour title of Kitchen's 12 to date.

    1    [1]    Nicol David    MAS
    2    [2]    Natalie Grinham    AUS
    3    [3]    Rachael Grinham    AUS
    4    [4]    Natalie Grainger    USA
    5    [5]    Tania Bailey    ENG
    6    [6]    Vicky Botwright    ENG
    7    [10]    Shelley Kitchen    NZL
    8    [7]    Jenny Duncalf    ENG
    9    [8]    Omneya Abdel Kawy    EGY
    10    [9]    Vanessa Atkinson    NED
    11    [12]    Alison Waters    ENG
    12    [11]    Laura Lengthorn-Massaro    ENG
    13    [14]    Rebecca Chiu    HKG
    14    [13]    Madeline Perry    IRL
    15    [15]    Kasey Brown    AUS
    16    [16]    Engy Kheirallah    EGY
    17    [19]    Annelize Naude    NED
    18    [18]    Jaclyn Hawkes    NZL
    19    [17]    Isabelle Stoehr    FRA
    20    [22]    Samantha Teran    MEX

For the complete WISPA ranking list, see www.wispa.net