Madeline Makes World Ranking History by Howard Harding 1 May 2014
- While Malaysian Nicol David surges on to a 94th successive month as
world number one in the May Women's World Squash Rankings, it is
Ireland's Madeline Perry who steals the headlines in the latest list
published by the Women's Squash Association (WSA) by becoming the
oldest player in history to retain a place in the women's world top ten.
Perry, who in December
won a record 14th Irish National Championship title, joined the WSA
World Tour in July 1998. After securing a career-high world No3 ranking
in April 2011, and reaching 27 WSA World Tour finals and winning 11,
Perry celebrated her 37th birthday in February.
Born in Banbridge,
near Belfast, Perry first appeared in the world top ten in February
2006 - and this month slips one place to No9.
"I think what I am
proud of is that I'm still competing at such a high level and competing
with the best in the world," said Perry (pictured above in action
against Raneem El Welily in January's Tournament of Champions) on
hearing the news of her unique achievement. "I think I'm playing so
well at an older age firstly because I trained very little as a kid,
went to university, and only after that trained seriously as a
professional!
"I also have been very
particular about planning my training as a professional, not
overtraining and using physiotherapy regularly to keep my body in good
shape," added the WSA star who has been selected to make a remarkable
fifth successive appearance for Northern Ireland in the quadrennial
Commonwealth Games in August in Scotland.
England's world
champion Laura Massaro holds onto second place in the May rankings,
ahead of Egypt's third-placed Raneem El Welily and New Zealander Joelle
King at No4.
France's Camille Serme returns to a career-equalling-high No5, with England's Alison Waters at No6.
The impressive recent
run by Nour El Sherbini has seen the Egyptian teenager follow her
14-place rise in the April rankings by jumping a further six positions
to No7 in the latest list.
Unseeded in the Penang
World Championship in March, El Sherbini became the youngest finalist
in the 35-year history of the event after upsetting Nicol David in a
stunning semi-final shock - then last month came through the Champion
Fiberglass Texas Open as a qualifier to win the WSA Gold 50 title
against expectations.
Lower in the list,
England's Emma Beddoes makes her top 20 debut by celebrating a
career-best No20 ranking after a rise of three places. The 28-year-old
from Leeds made the Texas Open quarter-finals as a qualifier, then also
reached last month's Mayfair Open final in Canada.
After winning her
second WSA Tour event as a 16-year-old at last month's Cannon Kirk
Homes Irish Open, Egypt's Nouran Ahmed Gohar jumps four places to a
career-best world No29 ranking.
Also celebrating a
best-ever ranking is Samantha Cornett, the 23-year-old Canadian who
notched up her 10th WSA Tour final appearance at last month's Emerson
WSA Racquet Club Pro Series in St Louis, USA - and rises three places
to No28.
May top 20 (inc. points average): 1 [1] Nicol David MAS 3,346 2 [2] Laura Massaro ENG 2,555 3 [3] Raneem El Welily EGY 1,754 4 [4] Joelle King NZL 1,176 5 [6] Camille Serme FRA 1,082 6 [5] Alison Waters ENG 1,036 7 [13] Nour El Sherbini EGY 934 8 [7] Low Wee Wern MAS 916 9 [8] Madeline Perry IRL 804 10 [12] Dipika Pallikal IND 775 11 [9] Annie Au HKG 760 12 [10] Jenny Duncalf ENG 722 13 [11] Omneya Abdel Kawy EGY 637 14 [14] Kasey Brown AUS 577 15 [16] Rachael Grinham AUS 574 16 [15] Amanda Sobhy USA 532 17 [18] Sarah-Jane Perry ENG 516 18 [17] Natalie Grinham NED 482 19 [19] Nicolette Fernandes GUY 425 20 [23] Emma Beddoes ENG 423
