Shabana Narrowly Stems Ashour Advance In New World Rankings

By the smallest margin on record, Amr Shabana maintains his position at the top of the Dunlop PSA Men's World Rankings, according to the new November list published by the Professional Squash Association - just one point in a thousand ahead of fellow Egyptian Ramy Ashour.

After reaching his first PSA Tour final for more than seven months at the Saudi International last month, Shabana beat Ashour in four games to avenge April's defeat in the Kuwait Open climax.

The PSA rankings calculations concluded that Shabana's average points total for the new month was 1,098.75, whilst Ashour achieved 1097.50!

The two Egyptians boast a 300-point lead over France's third-placed Gregory Gaultier; who is followed by Australia's David Palmer in fourth place; and Englishman James Willstrop at No5.

England's Nick Matthew jumps four places to No6 in the new list following his victory in the US Open in New York at the beginning of last month.

Fellow Englishman Peter Barker also has cause for celebration after rising to a career-high 13th place in the rankings. The 24-year-old from Essex followed his title victory in the Colombian Open in September by securing a surprise quarter-final berth in the Dunlop British Open later in the month.

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