Shabana Prolongs World Number One Reign

Victory in last month's Bear Stearns Tournament of Champions in New York ensures that Egypt's Amr Shabana extends his reign at the top of the new April Dunlop PSA Men's World Rankings, issued today by the Professional Squash Association.

The 27-year-old from Cairo became only the third player in the event's history to successfully defend the prestigious US title - in a triumph at Grand Central Terminal which brought his PSA Tour trophy haul to 16.

Frenchman Gregory Gaultier maintains his career-high No2 position, ahead of an unchanged top six which features Australians David Palmer and Anthony Ricketts at three and six, respectively; France's Thierry Lincou at four; and Egyptian teenager Ramy Ashour in fifth place.

Englishman James Willstrop, who beat higher-seeded compatriot Nick Matthew en-route to winning the ISS Canary Wharf Classic in London last month, overtakes Matthew to rise to seven in the new list.

John White, the 33-year-old Scot who created a personal record by enduring four successive five-game matches at East Wintergarden in Canary Wharf before finally yielding to Willstrop in a courageous 71-minute climax, jumps three places to No9 to make a welcome return to the world top ten.

Egypt's Mohammed Abbas celebrates a career-high No13 ranking in the new list. The 26-year-old from Giza achieved two notable upsets - beating top seed Nick Matthew and No3 seed Stewart Boswell - to win the CIMB Kuala Lumpur Open in Malaysia, his biggest PSA Tour title to date.

But, perhaps the most notable achievement in the April rankings is the long-awaited return to the top ten of Stewart Boswell. In May 2003, twelve months after reaching a career-high world No4, the Australian was struck down with a mystery back ailment which kept him away from the PSA Tour for almost two years.

By the time he was fit enough to return to the circuit, his ranking had slumped to 300. But by the end of 2005, he had amassed a further eight PSA Tour titles and was back in the top 20!

A combination of three quarter-final berths in Super Series events since October, plus reaching the final of the Kuala Lumpur Open last month, has brought the 28-year-old from Canberra back amongst the world's elite.

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