Palmer Rises To Two In April World Rankings

Whilst France's Thierry Lincou strengthens his grip on the No1 position in the new April Dunlop PSA Men's World Squash Rankings, announced today by the Professional Squash Association, Australia's David Palmer leapfrogs Englishman Lee Beachill to reclaim the second place.

Palmer, 28, from Lithgow in New South Wales, began his 2005 PSA Tour campaign in fine style - reaching the semi-finals of the Bear Stearns Tournament of Champions in New York in February, then this month collecting the Sheikha Al Saad Kuwait Open title for the first time after beating Beachill in the semi-finals and Peter Nicol in the final.

Thierry Lincou, a semi-finalist in Kuwait, celebrates his 29th birthday on Saturday (2 April) having extended his world No1 reign to four consecutive months since January.

Englishman Nicol - like Beachill and Palmer, a former world No1 - holds onto fourth place in the new list, ahead of Egypt's Amr Shabana who stays at No5.

Canada's Jonathon Power moves up to six, overtaking Australian Anthony Ricketts who slips to seven. Englishmen James Willstrop and Nick Matthew also swap places, with Willstrop moving from nine to eight.

Lower in the list, Shahid Zaman consolidates his status as the highest-ranked Pakistani by leaping five places to a career-high No15. Shahid, born in Quetta but recently located to Nottingham in England, claimed his second PSA title of the year against the seedings when he won the COAS International crown in his home country at the beginning of March.

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