03-Dec-2011
The News
KARACHI: Lahore-based Pakistani squash player Yasir Butt jumped up 26 places from 97th spot to 71st in December Dunlop PSA Men’s World Squash Rankings, published on Friday by the Professional Squash Association.
Butt performed brilliantly in last month’s EBS Dayton Open — PSA World Tour International 25 held in Dayton, Ohio. He started as a qualifier in the event and trampled many a seeded player to qualify for the final. In the final, he was defeated by World No 17 and second seeded Alister Walker of Botswana.
Pakistan No 1 Aamir Atlas Khan fell one place to 26th spot. Aamir’s younger brother Danish Atlas climbed six places to 87th spot. Pakistan No 2 Farhan Mehboob rose five places to 58th position.
Meanwhile, England occupied the top two positions in the world for the first time since 2004 with the rise of James Willstrop to second place.
Willstrop enjoyed the best month of his career in November with stunning PSA World Series title triumphs in both the Cathay Pacific Sun Hung Kai Financial Hong Kong Open and Kuwait PSA Cup — the latter last week giving the 28-year-old from Leeds the biggest win of his career.
In his second successive final clash with Karim Darwish, Willstrop dropped his first game in ten matches in Kuwait before overcoming the Egyptian in four games to secure his fifth World Series crown since March 2008.
Fellow Yorkshireman Nick Matthew completes his first full year as No1 in the new list. The 31-year-old from Sheffield became the first player for 15 years to successfully defend the World Open title in Rotterdam last monthóand later reached the quarter-finals in Kuwait, but was then forced to withdraw from the event with an adductor injury.
In the first PSA world rankings since December 2005 to feature an Egyptian in the top three, France’s Gregory Gaultier leaped two places to No 3 after reaching the World Open final and securing semifinal berths both in Hong Kong and Kuwait.
Egypt, however, takes the next three places in the rankingsóled by Ramy Ashour at 4; Karim Darwish at 5, and Amr Shabana at 6.
The 20-year-old Egyptian Mohamed El Shorbagy is in the eighth place after title success in November’s Macau Open followed by his first ever World Series semifinal appearance in Kuwait. |
