Malaysian David enters ninth year as top squash player

LONDON: Less than two weeks after becoming World Champion for a record eighth time, Malaysia’s Nicol David celebrates the ninth anniversary of first becoming world number one by topping the January 2015 Women’s World Squash Rankings published by the Women’s Squash Association.
It was in January 2006 that David, aged 22, first headed the WSA list. After slipping to No2 in April, the 31-year-old from Penang reclaimed pole position in August 2006 — since then she has reigned supreme for a record unbroken 102 months.
At the Wadi Degla Women’s World Squash Championship last month in Egypt, David saved four match-balls in the final of the 30th staging of the premier WSA championship to reclaim the trophy and extend her record to eight titles.
Her opponent was home favourite Raneem El Welily, the No3 seed from the Wadi Degla club in Cairo who reached the final against expectations. The Alexandria-born 26-year-old is rewarded by moving up to No2 in the January rankings, returning to second place for the first time since March 2013.
England’s Laura Massaro slips to three in the new list, with Egypt’s Nour El Sherbini at No 4, and Londoner Alison Waters — who denied Massaro, the defending champion, a third successive appearance in the final after a shock quarter-final upset in Cairo — in fifth place.
Rising Egyptian Nouran Gohar celebrates a career-high No17 ranking. The 17-year-old from Cairo — the youngest player in the world top 20 — toppled fourth seed El Sherbini in the opening round of the World Championship in her home city, just a month after winning the WSA Silver 25 Monte Carlo Classic from the position of eighth seed!
There are further Egyptian highlights lower in the new ranking list — led by 15-year-old Habiba Mohamed who becomes the youngest player in the top 30 after leaping from 66 in January 2014 to a career-best No23.
Nadine Shahin, a 17-year-old from Cairo, rises to a career-high No40, while Alexandrian Nouran El Torky moves up to a best-ever No41.