Peter Nicol Stays #1 on Eve of British Open

10.2.00 London. PSA and Squashtalk

ENGLAND'S PARKE POWERS TO CAREER-HIGH WORLD NO 3 - BARADA DROPS TO FOURTH

(Simon Parke photo, courtesy Dunlop Sport)

Simon Parke, the 28-year-old England No1 from Nottingham, has risen to a career-best world No3 in the October Dunlop PSA Men's World Rankings, announced today (2 October) by the Professional Squash Association (PSA).

Scotland's world champion Peter Nicol, unbeaten on the PSA Tour since February, heads the list for the ninth successive month following his success in last month's Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Open, his sixth title of the year - ahead of Canada's Jonathon Power at No2.

Parke, originally from Yorkshire, provides one of the sport's most compelling stories. He reached four in the world in March 1997 just over a year after undergoing surgery and chemotherapy treatment for testicular cancer. Since winning the US Open title for the first time last year, he has reached the semi-finals of the British Open, Flanders Open, Irish Open, PSA Masters and Al-Ahram International.

In June, Parke was a PSA Super Series Finals finalist for the second time in his career - and stretched the ultimate winner Peter Nicol in a five-game marathon which was widely believed to be one of the best squash finals of all time.

Parke's rise to world No3 pushes Egypt's Ahmed Barada to No4, ahead of England's Paul Johnson who moves up to five. Johnson's compatriot Peter Marshall also rises one place, to No8, while Scotland's John White returns to the top ten at 10.

Barada was victimized by his stabbing attack in Egypt earlier this year, which put him back on the comeback trail at the time of some key tournaments. His deportment in Egypt and Hong Kong, though, led to his early departure from The Cathay Pacific, which deprived him of key ranking points.

Australia's Stewart Boswell is the highest-riser in the top twenty - leaping 11 places to an all-time high world No16. The 22-year-old from Canberra, a graduate of the Australian Institute of Sport, reached the semi-finals of last month's Hong Kong Open as a qualifier.

Edited from material supplied by PSA. For further PSA information: Howard Harding Email: HowHard@aol.com

Top 20 PSA Rankings October 2000:

1 [1] Peter Nicol SCO
2 [2] Jonathon Power CAN
3 [4] Simon Parke ENG
4 [3] Ahmed Barada EGY
5 [6] Paul Johnson ENG
6 [5] Martin Heath SCO
7 [7] Del Harris ENG
8 [9] Peter Marshall ENG
9 [8] David Palmer AUS
10 [12] John White SCO
11 [10] David Evans WAL
12 [11] Anthony Hill AUS
13 [13] Thierry Lincou FRA
14 [19] Alex Gough WAL
15 [15] Nick Taylor ENG
16 [27] Stewart Boswell AUS
17 [17] Graham Ryding CAN
18 [16] Mark Chaloner ENG
19 [20] Amjad Khan PAK
20 [14] Paul Price AUS

[full PSA ranking list]

• Golestan Radwan: Egypt
• Tomas Barva, Czech Republic
• David Blick, Alaska USA
• Kim Tunney: Midwest USA
• Andre Maur: Atlanta USA
• Paul Ansdell: Massachusetts USA
  

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