Gaultier Takes Two In New World Rankings

France's Gregory Gaultier reclaims the No2 slot in the new May Dunlop PSA Men's World Squash Rankings - moving from fourth position to break up the Egyptian trio of Karim Darwish, Amr Shabana and Ramy Ashour who occupied the top three places in last month's list published by the Professional Squash Association.

The 26-year-old from Aix-en-Provence has enjoyed a sensational run on the PSA World Tour since November, reaching the final in six of eight events in a row and lifting the title in the Macau Open and the JP Morgan Tournament of Champions. In March, Gaultier successfully retained his ATCO Super Series Finals crown - becoming only the third player in history to defend the flagship PSA title.

Karim Darwish moves into his fifth month as world number one, with former world champion Amr Shabana slipping to three and Ramy Ashour, the reigning World Open champion, down to four.

Peter Barker also has much to celebrate - rising two places to a career-high No7 to become the second-highest-ranked Englishman for the first time. The 25-year-old left-hander from London secured his 13th - and biggest - Tour title in March, winning the CIMB KL Open in Malaysia.

Rising Pakistan star Farhan Mehboob also make notable progress - jumping two places to a best-ever 16th place. The 20-year-old from Peshawar made four Tour finals in his home country last year - recording title triumphs in the President PSF International and CNS International.

But the most impressive achievement in the new top 20 list is made by Egyptian teenager Mohamed El Shorbagy. The 18-year-old world junior champion from Alexandria, who made a stunning mark on the senior circuit by reaching the quarter-finals of the 2008 Hi-Tec World Open in his maiden appearance in the event as a qualifier, storms into the world top 20 for the first time at No18.

1 [1] Karim Darwish EGY
2 [4] Gregory Gaultier FRA
3 [2] Amr Shabana EGY
4 [3] Ramy Ashour EGY
5 [5] David Palmer AUS
6 [6] Nick Matthew ENG
7 [9] Peter Barker ENG
8 [7] Thierry Lincou FRA
9 [8] James Willstrop ENG
10 [10] Wael El Hindi EGY
11 [11] Adrian Grant ENG
12 [12] Borja Golan ESP
13 [13] Mohd Azlan Iskandar MAS
14 [14] Ong Beng Hee MAS
15 [15] Aamir Atlas Khan PAK
16 [18] Farhan Mehboob PAK
17 [16] Alister Walker ENG
18 [21] Mohamed El Shorbagy EGY
19 [17] Laurens Jan Anjema NED
20 [20] Stewart Boswell AUS