SquashZAG

Official Release
Issued by Howard Harding

Egypt's Ramy Ashour maintains his lead at the top of the March Dunlop PSA Men's World Squash Rankings, but second-placed Englishman Nick Matthew has reduced the gap in the new list published today (Tuesday) by the Professional Squash Association.
 
The world's top two players met for the second time this year in last month's final of the North American Open – but this time Matthew emerged triumphant in the second PSA Super Series 2010 event of the year in Richmond, Virginia, as the Yorkshireman ended a four-match winning streak by Ashour.
 
While Egyptian Amr Shabana, who lost to Ashour in a five-game semi-final in the USA, holds onto third place, in-form Englishman James Willstrop rises two places to take over fourth place after a semi-final berth in Richmond and a title triumph in the year's opening PSA Super Series event at the JP Morgan Tournament of Champions in New York.
 
Veteran Frenchman Thierry Lincou also has cause for celebration after moving back into the world's top eight, leapfrogging David Palmer after beating his Australian rival en-route to winning the Bluenose Classic in Canada last month to notch up his 22nd PSA World Tour title.
 
Rising English star Daryl Selby moves up three places to No12 to move ahead of compatriot Alister Walker – boosted by an unexpected runners-up berth in the Bluenose Classic.
 
And Australian Cameron Pilley is rewarded with a career-high world No14 ranking after reaching last month's Swedish Open semi-finals unseeded.
 
A surprise runner-up finish in the Motor City Open in Detroit in February has seen Mohd Azlan Iskandar move up to 18 – now ahead of fellow Malaysian Ong Beng Hee for the second time this year.
 
March top 20 (including points average):
1        [1]         Ramy Ashour                    EGY       1155
2        [2]         Nick Matthew                    ENG       1061
3        [3]         Amr Shabana                    EGY       915
4        [6]         James Willstrop                ENG       718
5        [4]         Karim Darwish                  EGY       682
6        [5]         Gregory Gaultier               FRA       633
7        [7]         Peter Barker                      ENG       537
8        [9]         Thierry Lincou                   FRA       505
9        [8]         David Palmer                    AUS       463
10      [10]      Adrian Grant                      ENG       391
11      [11]      Wael El Hindi                     EGY       348
12      [15]      Daryl Selby                        ENG       335
13      [12]      Alister Walker                   ENG       319
14      [17]      Cameron Pilley                 AUS       303
15      [13]      Laurens Jan Anjema       NED       302
16      [14]      Mohamed El Shorbagy    EGY       286
17      [16]      Stewart Boswell                AUS       279
18      [20]      Mohd Azlan Iskandar       MAS      270
19      [19]      Ong Beng Hee                   MAS      249
20      [18]      Aamir Atlas Khan             PAK       248