1 Feb 2005
While France's Thierry Lincou and England's Lee Beachill stay at one and two, respectively, in the new February Dunlop PSA Men's World Squash Rankings, announced today by the Professional Squash Association, all the remaining positions in the top ten have changed.
Canada's Jonathon Power returns to the top five for the first time in 16 months after extending his late run of form last year in January in the USA. The 30-year-old from Montreal picked up the Marsh & McLennan Apawamis Open title at the beginning of January, and went on to claim semi-final berths in the SSA Global Windy City Open and EBS Asset Management Dayton Open to climb back to No5 in the new list.
While Australia's David Palmer rises to three, England's Peter Nicol falls to four - his lowest world ranking since September 1996. The 31-year-old suffered a shock first round loss in the Windy City Open in Chicago - but then revealed the quality which saw him celebrate his 60th month as world No1 last year when he powered through the Ohio field to clinch the Dayton Open title, his 49th PSA Tour trophy since 1992.
Egypt's Amr Shabana, the most consistent player of the year to date, contested both the Chicago and Dayton finals - and is rewarded by a three-place rise to No7, behind Nick Matthew who moves up to six.
John White, who reached No1 last year but plummeted to 12 in the New Year list, ended his recent poor run with a vengeance in January when he won the Windy City Open in spectacular style. The Scot bounds back to No9 in the February list.
Notable lower order successes are achieved by Malaysia's Mohd Azlan Iskandar, who rises to a career-best 17; and Pakistan's Shahid Zaman, who makes his top 20 debut at a career-high 18.
	1	[1]	Thierry Lincou	FRA
				2	[2]	Lee Beachill	ENG
				3	[4]	David Palmer	AUS
				4	[3]	Peter Nicol	ENG
				5	[6]	Jonathon Power	CAN
				6	[7]	Nick Matthew	ENG
				7	[10]	Amr Shabana	EGY
				8	[5]	James Willstrop	ENG
				9	[12]	John White	SCO
				10	[9]	Gregory Gaultier	FRA
				11	[11]	Anthony Ricketts	AUS
				12	[8]	Karim Darwish	EGY
				13	[15]	Joseph Kneipp	AUS
				14	[13]	Graham Ryding	CAN
				15	[14]	Adrian Grant	ENG
				16	[17]	Ong Beng Hee	MAS
				17	[19]	Mohd Azlan Iskandar	MAS
				18	[21]	Shahid Zaman	PAK
				19	[16]	Mohammed Abbas	EGY
				20	[18]	Dan Jenson	AUS
