While James Willstrop maintains his grip on top position in the new December Dunlop PSA Men’s World Squash Rankings, it is England team-mate Peter Barker who has major cause for celebration after moving up to a career-high fifth place in the list published today by the Professional Squash Association.<\/p>\n
One of the most consistent players on the PSA Tour, Barker has reached at least the quarter-finals in 13 PSA World Series events in a row since January last year – a feat unequalled by any other player.<\/p>\n
“I’m delighted to hear I’ve moved up to number five – it’s a goal I’ve wanted to achieve for some time,” said the 29-year-old Londoner on hearing the news.<\/p>\n
“I’m pleased my consistency has paid off, but it’s now time to progress further than the quarter finals and challenge the guys above me!<\/p>\n
“Obviously, a continued thanks to those who support me – you know who you are – and without you, I wouldn’t be at a career-high.”<\/p>\n
England now boast three players in the world top five, with Nick Matthew holding onto second position – but only by a single point (in more than 950) above Frenchman Gregory Gaultier.<\/p>\n
While Matthew took a break from the Tour last month, Gaultier won the 22nd title of his career at the Abierto Mexicano de Raquetas – two weeks after beating Matthew in October’s final of the NetSuite Open in San Francisco.<\/p>\n
Egypt’s Omar Mosaad also records a career-high ranking this month. The 24-year-old from Cairo reached the Abierto Mexicano de Raquetas final, then the semi-finals of the EBS Dayton Open – and now moves up two places to No8.<\/p>\n
Spain’s Borja Golan leaps an impressive five places to No13 – just three positions away from the career-high he achieved in 2009 before being side-lined by a serious knee injury. The 29-year-old from Santiago de Compostela notched up the 27th Tour title of his career last month at the
EBS Dayton Open in the USA.<\/p>\n
The top 20 also welcome back the Swiss number one Nicolas Mueller. The 23-year-old from Zurich continues to make progress on the Tour after becoming the highest-ranked Swiss player of all-time – and now rises three places to No20.<\/p>\n
December 2012 top 20 (inc. points average):
(Prev) Pts
1 [1] James Willstrop ENG 1,082
2 [2] Nick Matthew ENG 996
3 [3] Gregory Gaultier FRA 995
4 [4] Ramy Ashour EGY 894
5 [6] Peter Barker ENG 539
6 [7] Mohamed El Shorbagy EGY 531
7 [5] Karim Darwish EGY 511
8 [11] Omar Mosaad EGY 440
9 [8] Amr Shabana EGY 415
10 [10] Daryl Selby ENG 412
11 [9] Laurens Jan Anjema NED 373
12 [14] Tom Richards ENG 360
13 [18] Borja Golan ESP 347
14 [13] Tarek Momen EGY 339
15 [16] Simon Rosner GER 338
16 [12] Alister Walker BOT 336
17 [15] Hisham Mohd Ashour EGY 303
18 [19] Adrian Grant ENG 299
19 [17] Cameron Pilley AUS 276
20 [23] Nicolas Mueller SUI 253<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
By Indian Sports News Network<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" While James Willstrop maintains his grip on top position in the new December Dunlop PSA Men’s World Squash Rankings, it is England team-mate Peter Barker who has major cause for celebration after moving up to a career-high fifth place in the list published today by the Professional Squash Association. One of the most consistent players […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-others"],"yoast_head":"\n