Ashour & Matthew Hold Onto Top Two World Ranking Slots

After both claimed major PSA World Tour titles last month, Egypt's Ramy Ashour and Englishman Nick Matthew hold onto the top two positions in the April Dunlop PSA Men's World Squash Rankings, published today by the Professional Squash Association.

Ashour moves into his fourth month as world number one after winning the 5-star CIMB KL Open in Malaysia in March. Later in the month, in London, Matthew triumphed in the ISS Canary Wharf Classic - also a 5-star event - and has further closed the gap behind his Egyptian rival, in second place.

Egypt's former world number one Amr Shabana holds onto third place in the list while Karim Darwish completes the trio of Egyptians in the top four by moving up to No4 - boosted by reaching the Kuala Lumpur final.

After contesting three successive Tour finals in Canada last month - losing two to Dutchman Laurens Jan Anjema but then winning the third against Hisham Mohd Ashour in Calgary - England's Daryl Selby celebrates his top ten debut and a career-high No9 ranking.

The new ranking consolidates the 27-year-old from Essex's position as the fourth highest-ranked Englishman in the list.

But Anjema also boasts a best-ever ranking - leaping four places to a career-high No11 after winning the National Bank Financial Group International in Montreal and the Manitoba Open in Winnipeg.

And a further Englishman has reasons to be cheerful as Jonathan Kemp celebrates his first appearance in the top 20 at No20, sharing the position with Pakistan's Aamir Atlas Khan.

Left-hander Kemp made it through to the 13th Tour final of his career at last month's Chennai Open in India.

April top 20 (inc. points average):

1 [1] Ramy Ashour EGY 1190
2 [2] Nick Matthew ENG 1117
3 [3] Amr Shabana EGY 971
4 [5] Karim Darwish EGY 740
5 [4] James Willstrop ENG 696
6 [6] Gregory Gaultier FRA 655
7 [8] Thierry Lincou FRA 505
8 [7] Peter Barker ENG 490
9 [12] Daryl Selby ENG 412
10 [9] David Palmer AUS 404
11 [15] Laurens Jan Anjema NED 378
12 [11] Wael El Hindi EGY 342
13 [10] Adrian Grant ENG 333
14 [13] Alister Walker ENG 321
15 [14] Cameron Pilley AUS 308
16 [18] Mohd Azlan Iskandar MAS 289
17 [16] Mohamed El Shorbagy EGY 286
18 [17] Stewart Boswell AUS 285
19 [19] Ong Beng Hee MAS 272
20= [21] Jonathan Kemp ENG 248
20= [18] Aamir Atlas Khan PAK 248

For full list - see www.psa-squash.com