In a breakthrough new Women's World Squash Rankings, published for
February by the Women's International Squash Players' Association (WISPA),
the number of countries represented by players in the top 20 rises to an
all-time high of 11.
While
Nicol David, of Malaysia, retains the number one position - extending
her unbroken reign at the top to 19 months - Samantha Teran makes her
debut in the top 20 to become the first ever Mexican to feature in the elite
women's list.
The 26-year-old from Mexico City, a three times Pan American champion,
has made significant strides on the WISPA World Tour over recent months
- winning the Southport Open and Toronto Open in North America
last year, and striking success in the Liberty Bell Open last month in
Philadelphia, USA, to bring her Tour haul to eight titles.
The countries represented in the world top 20 now feature Malaysia,
Australia, USA, England, New Zealand, Egypt, Netherlands, Hong Kong, Ireland,
France and Mexico.
"It's wonderful to welcome Samantha - and Mexico - into our world top 20 for
the first time and see the growing impact of women's squash around the world,"
said WISPA Chief Executive Andrew Shelley. "With new women's events
recently in new squash nations such as Iceland, Portugal, Iran, China and
South Korea, we will soon be looking forward to extending even further our
reach of top 20 players from our ever-increasing international membership."
New Zealander Shelley Kitchen also has much to celebrate in the new
list - after jumping three places to a career-best No7 ranking. After winning
four WISPA Tour titles last year, the 28-year-old from Auckland got her 2008
campaign off to a positive start by claiming the Greenwich Open crown
in January - the biggest Tour title of Kitchen's 12 to date.
1 [1] Nicol David MAS
2 [2] Natalie Grinham AUS
3 [3] Rachael Grinham AUS
4 [4] Natalie Grainger USA
5 [5] Tania Bailey ENG
6 [6] Vicky Botwright ENG
7 [10] Shelley Kitchen NZL
8 [7] Jenny Duncalf ENG
9 [8] Omneya Abdel Kawy EGY
10 [9] Vanessa Atkinson NED
11 [12] Alison Waters ENG
12 [11] Laura Lengthorn-Massaro ENG
13 [14] Rebecca Chiu HKG
14 [13] Madeline Perry IRL
15 [15] Kasey Brown AUS
16 [16] Engy Kheirallah EGY
17 [19] Annelize Naude NED
18 [18] Jaclyn Hawkes NZL
19 [17] Isabelle Stoehr FRA
20 [22] Samantha Teran MEX
