Shabana Strengthens World Ranking Lead

Egypt's Amr Shabana strengthens his grip on the world number one ranking in the new June Dunlop PSA Men's World Rankings, published by the Professional Squash Association - ahead of Australia's David Palmer at two and Frenchman Thierry Lincou at No3.

Palmer and Lincou faced each other in last month's final of the Liverpool 08 Open, with the Frenchman fighting back from 0/2 down to record a dramatic win to close the ranking gap on Palmer.

Australian Anthony Ricketts moves up to four in the new list, overtaking England's James Willstrop, a beaten quarter-finalist in Liverpool.

Lee Beachill and Karim Darwish - both of whom reached the Liverpool 08 semi-finals against the seedings - are rewarded with rises in the June list. Beachill, the Englishman who slumped out of the top ten last month for the first time in four years, returns to No10, while Egyptian Darwish moves up a single place to No9.

Egypt also boasts a top twenty newcomer: Ramy Ashour, the Cairo teenager who two years ago became the youngest ever world junior champion at the age of 16, bursts into the world's elite for the first time at No20. Ashour consolidated his maiden PSA Tour title success in the Athens Open in November 2004 by reaching two PSA finals this year, at the Dayton Open in the USA and COAS International in Pakistan.

1 [1] Amr Shabana EGY
2 [2] David Palmer AUS
3 [3] Thierry Lincou FRA
4 [5] Anthony Ricketts AUS
5 [4] James Willstrop ENG
6 [6] Peter Nicol ENG
7 [7] Nick Matthew ENG
8 [8] Gregory Gaultier FRA
9 [10] Karim Darwish EGY
10 [11] Lee Beachill ENG
11 [9] John White SCO
12 [12] Mohd Azlan Iskandar MAS
13 [13] Ong Beng Hee MAS
14 [14] Olli Tuominen FIN
15 [15] Stewart Boswell AUS
16 [16] Adrian Grant ENG
17 [17] Mohammed Abbas EGY
18 [19] Alex Gough WAL
19 [18] Graham Ryding CAN
20 [22] Ramy Ashour EGY