SquashTalk >Rankings section > PSA Sept 1 2001 Rankings
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Australia's Palmer Tops World Rankings
Thierry Lincou photo © 2001 Fritz Borchert
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Cardiff Wales, Sept 1 2001 by Howard
Harding © 2001.
TOP PAKISTANIS MOVE UP TO 26, 28, 36
David Palmer has reached No1 for the first time in the new
September Dunlop PSA Men's World Rankings, announced today (4th September)
by the Professional Squash Association (PSA), becoming the first Australian
to top the rankings since Chris Dittmar in 1993.
Palmer, ranked outside the world top 30 just two years ago, has
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| Thierry Lincou surgest to #8 |
become the most consistent player on the PSA Tour this year. The Antwerp-based 25-year-old from Lithgow, near Sydney, swept through the British Open field in June to become the first Australian to lift the sport's prestigious title since the legendary Geoff Hunt twenty years earlier - then last month, in his fifth successive final, he captured the Hong Kong Open title to clinch this world No1 status.
Whilst Canada's Jonathon Power retains his No2 slot in the new list, England's Peter Nicol - a shock first round casualty in Hong Kong - drops from No1 to third place, marking the first time that the world champion and former Scot has fallen outside the world's top two since September 1997.
The new ranking list also marks a career-high world No7 position for England's Mark Chaloner, the 29-year-old from Lincolnshire who registered his previous career-best ranking (of 8) in May 1996. A semi-finalist in Hong Kong, Chaloner now becomes England's highest-ranked player behind Peter Nicol, following his injured compatriot Simon Parke's slip to No12.
Thierry Lincou, France's highest-ranked player of all time, is the top twenty's highest riser - moving from 20 to a career-equalling No8 following his spectacular unseeded passage through to the Hong Kong Open final after a four-month layoff following a hand injury. Palmer's success spearheads further success for Australian squash in the new rankings - with Stewart Boswell, from Canberra, making his top ten debut at No9 following his second successive semi-final berth in Hong Kong, and Anthony Ricketts, another Australian Institute of Sport graduate, from Brisbane, making his top twenty debut at 19.
Egypt's world junior champion Kareem Darwish also enters the world top twenty for the first time, at 18.
Mansoor and Shahid Zaman have made steady gains in the world rankings for Pakistan --- Mansoor rising to 26th, Shahid rising to 36th and countryman Amjad Khan moving up to 28th.
The top American in the listing is David McNeely at 101st.
1 [3] David Palmer AUS
2 [2] Jonathon Power CAN
3 [1] Peter Nicol ENG
4 [4] Paul Price AUS
5 [5] David Evans WAL
6 [6] John White SCO
7 [12] Mark Chaloner ENG
8 [20] Thierry Lincou FRA
9 [15] Stewart Boswell AUS
10 [9] Martin Heath SCO
11 [8] Ong Beng Hee MAS
12 [7] Simon Parke ENG
13 [13] Alex Gough WAL
14 [10] Paul Johnson ENG
15 [14] Lee Beachill ENG
16 [16] Chris Walker ENG
17 [17] Del Harris ENG
18 [21] Kareem Darwish EGY
19 [25] Anthony Ricketts AUS
20 [18] Graham Ryding CAN
