Waters Back In World Top Five

While Malaysia's Nicol David maintains her tight grip on the top position in the Women's World Squash Rankings, England's Alison Waters returns to her career-high No5 place as the highest riser in the February list published today by the Women's International Squash Players' Association (WISPA).

David heads an unchanged group in the top four places, with Dutch star Natalie Grinham in second place; England's Jenny Duncalf at No3; and Rachael Grinham, of Australia, in fourth place.

Alison Waters began the year in fine style, romping through the Harrow Greenwich Open field in the USA to win the WISPA Tour Silver title without dropping a game.

Vanessa Atkinson, the former world champion from the Netherlands who was a semi-finalist in Greenwich, returns to the top ten at No10 for the first time for over a year.

One place below is France's rising star Camille Serme, the 20-year-old from Creteil, near Paris, who is celebrating a career-high position.

Also up two places is New Zealander Jaclyn Hawkes, the 27-year-old from Auckland who moves to 15 after winning the Chairman's Cup in Hong Kong.

After two months out of the top 20, Egypt's Raneem El Weleily marks her return at No18 after becoming the only unseeded player to make the Greenwich Open semi-finals.

February top 20 (inc. points average):

1 [1] Nicol David MAS 2692
2 [2] Natalie Grinham NED 1469
3 [3] Jenny Duncalf ENG 1460
4 [4] Rachael Grinham AUS 1446
5 [6] Alison Waters ENG 1351
6 [5] Natalie Grainger USA 1146
7 [7] Omneya Abdel Kawy EGY 1047
8 [8] Madeline Perry IRL 959
9 [9] Laura Massaro ENG 910
10 [11] Vanessa Atkinson NED 525
11 [12] Camille Serme FRA 524
12 [10] Kasey Brown AUS 517
13 [13] Engy Kheirallah EGY 491
14 [14] Samantha Teran MEX 474
15 [17] Jaclyn Hawkes NZL 469
16 [15] Annie Au HKG 467
17 [16] Shelley Kitchen NZL 451
18 [21] Raneem El Weleily EGY 434
19 [18] Isabelle Stoehr FRA 419
20 [19] Rebecca Chiu HKG 419