Power Burst Back into Elite Four

May 1, 2005 by Martin Bronstein © 2005
photo © 2005 Stephen J Line

[top Americas players]

Thierry Lincou (r) retains #1 but is upstaged by Jonathon Power (#4) in Bermuda. photo © 2005 Fritz Borchert

Jonathon Power’s reward for his shock win in Bermuda is a jump in the rankings to number four with enough points to be breathing down the neck of Australian David Palme who has once against swapped placed with Lee Beachill who has reclaimed his number two spot.

In the April rankings Power averaged 443 points while Palmer was at number two with a 788 average. In the May rankings just issued, Power’s average has improved to 608 while Palmer had dropped to 647. It is interesting to note that Power has played 13 tournaments in the last 12 months, more than anybody in the top ten except Anthony Ricketts. The surging Australian, who retains his number seven spot has notched up 14 tournaments since May 2004, remarkable considering that he had to take six months off because of a persistent knee problem, cured by two operations.

Thierry Lincou retains his top position but his average has dropped below the thousand mark, putting him within striking range of Beachill whose average is 832. Lincou – and all the other players - will certainly maintain their positions over the next four months as there are no major tournaments until the $40,000 English Open in August and the $150,000 Cathay Pacific in September.

It is now almost four years since Power has held the number one spot – that was July 2001. Through a series of injuries – both inflicted and self-inflicted – he gradually dropped down to number nine in the last three months of 2004. Since that point his health and results have improved resulting his his rise to number four.

John White, who has just come out of a disastrous year, is back in the top ten. Just 13 months ago he was number one and was playing well enough to stay there, but then along came twins and White could not seem to win a thing. This year results have started to improve and his number ten spot in the May list could be the start of a resurgence.

The lone Finn, Olli Tuominen has jumped up three places to enter the top 20 at eighteen while Paul Price has dropped from 23 to 31. Stacy Ross, the great English junior hope who dropped out of squash for nine years and made a comeback at the age of 26, has moved into the top fifty on the back of improving results and his first tournament win at the Mega Italian Open last week.

Don’t bother to watch this space until September – the order won’t be changing.

TOP TEN MAY 2005 (with # events entered):

                                # Events        Ranking Points
1. Thierry Lincou          9                999.219
2. Lee Beachill              10              832.813
3. David Palmer            9                647.656
4. Jonathon Power        13              608.750
5. Peter Nicol                11             498.472
6. Amr Shabana            12              460.833
7. Anthony Ricketts       14             452.000
8. James Willstrop         11             423.472
9. Nick Matthew             12             418.333
10. John White              10              373.594

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

[complete rankings for May]

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

39 (42) Shahier Razik CAN
51 (50) Matthew Giuffre CAN
55 (56) Eric Galvez MEX
70 (84) Nick Kyme BER
73 (71) Viktor Berg CAN
75 (72) Rafael Alarcon BRA
82 (80) Ian Power USA
83 (81) David Phillips CAN
85 (94) Christoper Gordon USA
90 (88) Shawn DeLierre CAN
96 (90) Kumail Mehmood USA

and the other top Americans:

103 (102) Beau River USA
114 (1115) Julian Illingworth USA
119 (118) Michael Puertas

Squashtalk.com All materials © 1999-2005. Communicate with us at info@squashtalk.com.
Published by Squashtalk LLC, 409 Massachusetts Ave, Suite 102, Acton, MA 01720 USA, Editor and Publisher Ron Beck,
Graphics editor Debra Tessier Send comments, ideas, contributions and feedback to the webmaster.
Copyright © 1999-2005 SquashTalk, all rights reserved, may not be reproduced in any form except for one-time personal use.