Ricketts, Shabana Surge Ahead in Rankings

Mar 1, 2005 by Howard Harding © 2004
match sequence © 2004 Debra Tessier

[top Americas players]

Thierry Lincou (r) reclaims #1 and Anthony Ricketts moves up to 5 going into March '05. photo © 2005 Fritz Borchert

Ricketts Roars Back To Six In World

France's Thierry Lincou consolidated his position at the top of the new March Dunlop PSA Men's World Squash Rankings, announced today (1 March) by the Professional Squash Association - but the big movers last month are the newly healthy Anthony Ricketts of Australia, who has leapt five places to recapture the career-best No6 world ranking he first achieved in October 2003 and Amr Shabana who moves back into the top five. Joe Kneipp also moves back into the top twelve.

Lincou was seeded to reach his 25th PSA Tour final at Grand Central terminal in New York, but Australian Ricketts, the tenth seed, had to battle past the fifth, third and ninth seeds before triumphing over the top-seeded Frenchman in a dramatic, 89-minute, five-game climax to the first PSA Super Series event of the year.

The triumph marked the successful end to a six-month fight-back by the 25-year-old from Sydney who withdrew from the Tour last January to undergo surgery on his right knee.

Lincou leads an unchanged top four, with England's Lee Beachill at two, Australia's David Palmer - a semi-finalist in New York - at three, and Englishman Peter Nicol at four.

Egypt's Amr Shabana is rediscovering the form which led his surprise success in the World Open in 2003 - and is rewarded with a return to his career-best world No5. The left-hander, who only reached one PSA Tour final in the year after his world title triumph, has already made two finals this year - in the Windy City and Dayton Opens in the USA - and followed this by upsetting world No2 Lee Beachill to reach the last four of the Tournament of Champions.

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

[complete rankings for March]

Other Players from the Americas in the top 100 (Mar 1 2005):

43 (40) Shahier Razik CAN
50 (55) Matthew Giuffre CAN
55 (56) Eric Galvez MEX
68 (71) Nick Kyme BER
70 (76) Rafael Alarcon BRA
75 (67) Viktor Berg CAN
79 (83) Ian Power USA
81 (82) Shawn DeLierre CAN
82 (88) David Phillips CAN
90 (84) Kumail Mehmood USA
93 (94) Christoper Gordon USA

and the other top Americans:

100 (103) Beau River USA
122 (125) Dylan Patterson USA
119 (122) Preston Quick USA
126 (129) Julian Illingworth USA
132 (133) Michael Puertas

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