Nicol David Completes Second Year As World Number One

Malaysia's Nicol David rounds off her second complete year as world number one in the July Women's World Rankings published today by the Women's International Squash Players' Association (WISPA).

The 24-year-old from Penang scored a notable victory last month in Korea where she won the Seoul Open in convincing style. The triumph not only marked her sixth successive title on the WISPA World Tour, but it also brought her career title total to 28 - ahead of all her Tour rivals for the first time!

After first topping the world rankings in January 2006, Nicol David began her unbroken two-year reign as world No1 in August 2006.

David heads an unchanged top seven, with Natalie Grinham at two; her older sister Rachael Grinham at three; USA's Natalie Grainger at four; England's Tania Bailey and Jenny Duncalf at five and six, respectively; and New Zealander Shelley Kitchen at No7.

England's Laura Lengthorn-Massaro continues her upward march to register a career-high No8 ranking. The 24-year-old from Preston in Lancashire boasts a remarkable record on the WISPA Tour, having exceeded her seeding in eight successive events since December last year.

Lengthorn-Massaro celebrated the fourth Tour title of her career in April at the Irish Open in Dublin - where she was the third seed - and went on to make the Texas Open final in May, again seeded three. In June, seeded eight, she fought through to the semi-finals of the Seoul Open in South Korea.

With compatriot Alison Waters rising two places to No10, the July rankings show four Englishwomen in the top ten for the first time in two years.

Samantha Teran is also celebrating a career-best ranking this month. The 27-year-old Mexican won the Epstein Becker & Green Los Angeles Open last week to extend her Tour record to 11 titles.

With only two losses in finals, Teran boasts an 85% success rate - notably higher than any other top twenty rival, including Nicol David (67%), Vanessa Atkinson (61%), Rachael Grinham (59%), Natalie Grainger (50%) and Natalie Grinham (41%).

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