(updated 4-feb-10 21:40 )  

Waters Back In World Top Five

While Malaysia's Nicol David maintains her tight grip on the top position in the Women's World Squash Rankings, England's Alison Waters returns to her career-high No5 place as the highest riser in the February list published today (Tuesday) by the Women's International Squash Players' Association (WISPA).

David heads an unchanged group in the top four places, with Dutch star Natalie Grinham in second place; England's Jenny Duncalf at No3; and Rachael Grinham, of Australia, in fourth place.

Alison Waters began the year in fine style, romping through the Harrow Greenwich Open field in the USA to win the WISPA Tour Silver title without dropping a game. 

Vanessa Atkinson, the former world champion from the Netherlands who was a semi-finalist in Greenwich, returns to the top ten at No10 for the first time for over a year.

One place below is France's rising star Camille Serme, the 20-year-old from Creteil, near Paris, who is celebrating a career-high position.

Also up two places is New Zealander Jaclyn Hawkes, the 27-year-old from Auckland who moves to 15 after winning the Chairman's Cup in Hong Kong.

After two months out of the top 20, Egypt's Raneem El Weleily marks her return at No18 after becoming the only unseeded player to make the Greenwich Open semi-finals.

February top 20 (inc. points average):

1        [1]       Nicol David                   MAS        2692
2        [2]       Natalie Grinham           NED        1469
3        [3]       Jenny Duncalf               ENG        1460
4        [4]       Rachael Grinham          AUS        1446
5        [6]       Alison Waters               ENG        1351
6        [5]       Natalie Grainger           USA        1146
7        [7]       Omneya Abdel Kawy    EGY        1047
8        [8]       Madeline Perry             IRL         959
9        [9]       Laura Massaro              ENG        910
10      [11]     Vanessa Atkinson         NED        525
11      [12]     Camille Serme             FRA        524
12      [10]     Kasey Brown                AUS        517
13      [13]     Engy Kheirallah            EGY        491
14      [14]     Samantha Teran           MEX        474
15      [17]     Jaclyn Hawkes              NZL        469
16      [15]     Annie Au                      HKG        467
17      [16]     Shelley Kitchen            NZL        451
18      [21]     Raneem El Weleily       EGY        434
19      [18]     Isabelle Stoehr            FRA        419
20      [19]     Rebecca Chiu               HKG        419

For the complete WISPA ranking list, see www.wispa.net