France's Gregory Gaultier rises to a career-high No2 in the new March Dunlop PSA Men's World Squash Rankings, issued today (Wednesday) by the Professional Squash Association. 

The 24-year-old from Aix-en-Provence, who was outside the top ten at the beginning of last year, consistently reached or bettered his seeding position in PSA Tour events throughout 2006 - achieving finals berths on six occasions, including the World Open as eighth seed, and claiming the titles in both the Hungarian Open in October and the US Open in November. 

Surprisingly, his 2007 campaign has not gone Gaultier's way, with disappointing runs in the Canadian Classic and Windy City Open, followed by an ankle injury which forced his withdrawal from the current Tournament of Champions in New York. 

Egypt's Amr Shabana completes an uninterrupted 12 months at the top of the rankings after first reaching No1 in April 2006.  Since then, Shabana has won four PSA Tour titles - including the Windy City Open, his seventh PSA Super Series crown, in January this year. 

Gaultier has leapfrogged David Palmer in the March rankings, thus ending the Australian's 12-month hold on the No2 position in the PSA list - despite winning the Swedish Open title earlier this month. 

France's Thierry Lincou and Egyptian teenager Ramy Ashour hold onto fourth and fifth places, respectively, while Australia's Anthony Ricketts moves up to No6 after reaching the final of the Windy City Open in January and winning the Virginia Pro Championship - also in the USA - this month. 

Englishman James Willstrop rises one place to No8 in the new list, and is joined again in the top ten by England and Pontefract club team-mate Lee Beachill, runner-up in the Virginia Pro Championship. 

Lower in the list, another Englishman celebrates a career-high position:  Peter Barker, winner of two PSA Tour titles in 2006 and runner-up in the Oregon Open in the USA this month, leaps two places to 17.

     1      [1]        Amr Shabana               EGY
     2     [3]        Gregory Gaultier          FRA
     3     [2]        David Palmer                AUS
     4     [4]        Thierry Lincou             FRA
     5     [5]        Ramy Ashour               EGY
     6     [7]        Anthony Ricketts         AUS
     7     [6]        Nick Matthew              ENG
     8     [9]        James Willstrop          ENG
     9     [8]        Karim Darwish             EGY
     10    [12]      Lee Beachill                 ENG
     11    [11]       Stewart Boswell           AUS
     12    [10]      John White                 SCO
     13    [13]      Wael El Hindi              EGY
     14    [15]      Mohammed Abbas       EGY
     15    [14]      Adrian Grant               ENG
     16    [16]      Ong Beng Hee              MAS
     17    [19]      Peter Barker                ENG
     18    [18]      Olli Tuominen              FIN
     19    [17]      Mohd Azlan Iskandar  MAS
     20   [20]      Borja Golan                  ESP