Ricketts Roars Back To Six In World

France's Thierry Lincou has extended his lead at the top of the new March Dunlop PSA Men's World Squash Rankings, announced today by the Professional Squash Association - but last week's shock Bear Stearns Tournament of Champions winner Anthony Ricketts has leapt five places to recapture the career-best No6 world ranking he first achieved in October 2003.

Lincou was seeded to reach his 25th PSA Tour final at Grand Central terminal in New York, but Australian Ricketts, the tenth seed, had to battle past the fifth, third and ninth seeds before triumphing over the top-seeded Frenchman in a dramatic, 89-minute, five-game climax to the first PSA Super Series event of the year.

The triumph marked the successful end to a six-month fight-back by the 25-year-old from Sydney who withdrew from the Tour last January to undergo surgery on his right knee.

Lincou leads an unchanged top four, with England's Lee Beachill at two, Australia's David Palmer - a semi-finalist in New York - at three, and Englishman Peter Nicol at four.

Egypt's Amr Shabana is rediscovering the form which led his surprise success in the World Open in 2003 - and is rewarded with a return to his career-best world No5. The left-hander, who only reached one PSA Tour final in the year after his world title triumph, has already made two finals this year - in the Windy City Open and Dayton Open in the USA - and followed this by upsetting world No2 Lee Beachill to reach the last four of the Tournament of Champions.

1 [1] Thierry Lincou FRA
2 [2] Lee Beachill ENG
3 [3] David Palmer AUS
4 [4] Peter Nicol ENG
5 [7] Amr Shabana EGY
6 [11] Anthony Ricketts AUS
7 [5] Jonathon Power CAN
8 [6] Nick Matthew ENG
9 [8] James Willstrop ENG
10 [10] Gregory Gaultier FRA
11 [9] John White SCO
12 [13] Joseph Kneipp AUS
13 [12] Karim Darwish EGY
14 [14] Graham Ryding CAN
15 [15] Adrian Grant ENG
16 [16] Ong Beng Hee MAS
17 [17] Mohd Azlan Iskandar MAS
18 [19] Mohammed Abbas EGY
19 [20] Dan Jenson AUS
20 [18] Shahid Zaman PAK