While Malaysia's Nicol David completes her second full calendar year as world number one in the new December Women's World Squash Rankings, Londoner Alison Waters makes notable progress by moving to a career-high No5 to become the highest-ranked English player for the first time in the list published by the Women's International Squash Players' Association (WISPA).

Nicol David maintained her overwhelming dominance of the women's world game last month by winning the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Open title for the third time in a row - bringing her career Tour title haul to 34, but, more significantly, her year's title tally to ten!  The 25-year-old from Penang also extended her unbeaten Tour record to 53 matches in more than a year.

Alison Waters has made marked progress since joining the WISPA World Tour in 2000.  The 24-year-old claimed three unexpected semi-final berths in WISPA Gold events in Malaysia, Korea and the Netherlands this year and became British National champion for the first time at the beginning of the year.

After beating Natalie Grinham to reach last month's Hong Kong Open final, Australia's Rachael Grinham returns to third place in the new list, just behind her younger sister who now represents the Netherlands. 

There are welcome returns to the top ten by New Zealander Shelley Kitchen and Ireland's Madeline Perry.  Aucklander Kitchen reached last month's Carol Weymuller Open final in New York against the odds and moves up to nine.

It is more than a year since Perry was last in the top ten.  The 31-year-old from Belfast, who has battled back to form after suffering a serious head injury just over a year ago, secured a semi-final berth in October's World Open as the 14th seed - and followed this with an unexpected quarter-final finish in the Qatar Classic.

Three players are celebrating career-best rankings in the new list - and two their debuts in the top 20.  England's Lauren Briggs moves two places to a best-ever 18 and 19-year-old Raneem El Weleily leaps four places to become the second highest-ranked Egyptian at 19, overtaking compatriot Engy Kheirallah for the first time.

But Hong Kong's Annie Au, also 19, becomes the youngest player in the top 20 after moving up to 20.  The teenager, who is currently leading the Hong Kong attack with distinction in the Women's World Team Championship in Cairo, has already notched up three WISPA titles this year, in Chinese Taipei, Australia and India.

    1    [1]    Nicol David    MAS
    2    [2]    Natalie Grinham    NED
    3    [4]    Rachael Grinham    AUS
    4    [3]    Natalie Grainger    USA
    5    [6]    Alison Waters    ENG
    6    [5]    Jenny Duncalf    ENG
    7    [8]    Omneya Abdel Kawy    EGY
    8    [9]    Laura Lengthorn-Massaro    ENG
    9    [11]    Madeline Perry    IRL
    10    [12]    Shelley Kitchen    NZL
    11    [10]    Vanessa Atkinson    NED
    12    [14]    Isabelle Stoehr    FRA
    13    [13]    Kasey Brown    AUS
    14    [7]    Vicky Botwright    ENG
    15    [15]    Rebecca Chiu    HKG
    16    [16]    Jaclyn Hawkes    NZL
    17    [18]    Samantha Teran    MEX
    18    [20]    Lauren Briggs    ENG
    19    [23]    Raneem El Weleily    EGY
    20    [21]    Annie Au    HKG

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