Ramy Ashour Holds Onto Top World Ranking

Egypt's Ramy Ashour retains his world number one ranking, according to the new February Dunlop PSA Men's World Squash Rankings published today by the Professional Squash Association.

Two successive PSA Super Series title successes at the end of last year took the 22-year-old from Cairo to the top of the world list for the first time in January.

And, despite losing in the final of the JP Morgan Tournament of Champions in New York last month, Ashour has extended his lead over second-placed Nick Matthew, the Englishman who finished as runner-up to the Egyptian in December's PSA Masters in India and Saudi International in Saudi Arabia.

Ashour is joined in the top four by fellow countrymen Amr Shabana and Karim Darwish - the former holding onto third place and the latter rising to No4 after a semi-final berth in New York.

But James Willstrop - the Englishman who beat Darwish, Shabana and Ashour en-route to winning the Tournament of Champions, the first 2010 PSA Super Series event - rises to No6 in the new list, leapfrogging compatriot Peter Barker.

Dutchman Laurens Jan Anjema moves up one place to a career-high-equalling No13, despite yet to get his 2010 PSA Tour campaign underway.

February top 20 (inc. points average):

1 [1] Ramy Ashour EGY 1200
2 [2] Nick Matthew ENG 1016
3 [3] Amr Shabana EGY 951
4 [5] Karim Darwish EGY 703
5 [4] Gregory Gaultier FRA 648
6 [7] James Willstrop ENG 643
7 [6] Peter Barker ENG 588
8 [8] David Palmer AUS 502
9 [9] Thierry Lincou FRA 454
10 [10] Adrian Grant ENG 391
11 [11] Wael El Hindi EGY 361
12 [12] Alister Walker ENG 329
13 [14] Laurens Jan Anjema NED 316
14 [15] Mohamed El Shorbagy EGY 309
15 [13] Daryl Selby ENG 308
16 [16] Stewart Boswell AUS 287
17 [18] Cameron Pilley AUS 276
18 [19] Aamir Atlas Khan PAK 250
19 [20] Ong Beng Hee MAS 248
20 [17] Mohd Azlan Iskandar MAS 247