Lincou Strengthens Hold On World Number One Ranking

France's Thierry Lincou has widened the gap ahead of England's second-placed Lee Beachill at the top of the new August Dunlop PSA Men's World Squash Rankings, produced by the Professional Squash Association.

Lincou, the 29-year-old world champion from Marseille, claimed his first PSA Tour title of the year last week with a powerful performance in the Bank Alfalah Pakistan Open in Karachi. The most successful French squash player of all time, Lincou beat Australia's David Palmer, the world No3, in the final to rack up the 14th PSA title of his career.

While Canada's Jonathon Power and England's Peter Nicol retain fourth and fifth place, respectively, Australian Anthony Ricketts continues his ranking rise by moving up to sixth place - boosted by a semi-final berth in the Pakistan Open.

Frenchman Gregory Gaultier, an unexpected semi-finalist in Karachi, returns to the top ten at ten - while lower down the list, England's Simon Parke makes a welcome return to the top twenty for the first time since the end of 2003.

But perhaps the most significant development in the latest PSA list is the rise to a career-high No16 of Malaysia's Mohd Azlan Iskandar, who overtakes for the first time in his career his compatriot and long-time Malaysian No1 Ong Beng Hee, who slips to 18.

1 [1] Thierry Lincou FRA
2 [2] Lee Beachill ENG
3 [3] David Palmer AUS
4 [4] Jonathon Power CAN
5 [5] Peter Nicol ENG
6 [7] Anthony Ricketts AUS
7 [6] Amr Shabana EGY
8 [8] James Willstrop ENG
9 [9] Nick Matthew ENG
10 [12] Gregory Gaultier FRA
11 [10] John White SCO
12 [11] Karim Darwish EGY
13 [13] Graham Ryding CAN
14 [14] Shahid Zaman PAK
15 [15] Joseph Kneipp AUS
16 [17] Mohd Azlan Iskandar MAS
17 [19] Olli Tuominen FIN
18 [16] Ong Beng Hee MAS
19 [18] Adrian Grant ENG
20 [21] Simon Parke ENG