09 Nov 2009

NSW pair continue rankings rise

New South Wales duo Cameron Pilley (Former AIS) and Donna Urquhart (Former AIS)  have continued their rise up the world professional squash rankings with both players reaching career highs this month.

Pilley, 27, is now the second ranked Australian male after he leapfrogged Canberra’s Stewart Boswell ( Former AIS) to move to number 15 in the men’s Professional Squash Association list, while 22-year-old Urquhart climbed two places to 24 on the Women’s International Squash Players’ Association rankings.

Both Pilley and Urquhart hail from the small town of Yamba on the north coast of New South Wales.

Australia’s top male player remained Lithgow’s David Palmer ( Former AIS and World #1), although he slipped a place to seven, while an injury-plagued Boswell dropped four places to number 20.

Hobart’s Aaron Frankcomb made it four Australians in the top 40 when he rose one spot to a career-best 38.

Frenchman Gregory Gaultier is the new world number one, ahead of Egyptian pair Amr Shabana and Karim Darwish, with England’s Nick Matthew and Ramy Ashour of Egypt rounding out the top five.

Urquhart has been rising steadily since July on the back of a series of good results in major tournaments and said she had been forced to re-evaluate her goals.

“I’ve already exceeded my expectations for the year by far,” she said.

“I’ve got two tournaments left for the year (the US Open in New York this week and the Qatar Classic in two weeks’ time) so I would be stoked if I could win through the first round of either of those.”

Urquhart said it was great to see two players from such a small town ranked so highly.

“I know we are both really proud of where we come from as it is a great little town and was a great place to grow up, and both our families still live there,” she said.

Malaysia’s Nicol David stayed at number one on the WISPA rankings, ahead of US player Natalie Grainger, Australian-born Dutchwoman Natalie Grinham and her sister Rachael Grinham.

Taree’s Kasey Brown was unchanged at 11, while Lisa Camilleri from Tully in Queensland rose two places to number 38.

Melody Francis climbed to a career-high 62 to move one ahead of fellow Victorian Amelia Pittock.

November rankings (last month in brackets):

Men

1 (2) Gregory Gaultier (FRA)

2 (3) Amr Shabana (EGY)

3 (1) Karim Darwish (EGY)

4 (5) Nick Matthew (ENG)

5 (4) Ramy Ashour (EGY)

6 (7) James Willstrop (ENG)

7 (6) David Palmer (AUS)

8 (8) Thierry Lincou (FRA)

9 (9) Peter Barker (ENG)

10 (11) Borja Golan (ESP)

Australians

15 (17) Cameron Pilley

20 (16) Stewart Boswell

38 (39) Aaron Frankcomb

57 (56) Scott Arnold (AIS Scholarship)

61 (63) Ryan Cuskelly (AIS Scholarship)

78 (78) Matthew Karwalski

86 (87) Steve Finitsis

88 (86) Zac Alexander (AIS Scholarship)

94 (102) Mike Corren

95 (90) Wade Johnstone

Women

1 (1) Nicol David (MAS)

2 (3) Natalie Grainger (USA)

3 (2) Natalie Grinham (NED)

4 (4) Rachael Grinham (AUS)

5 (5) Alison Waters (ENG)

6 (6) Jenny Duncalf (ENG)

7 (8) Omneya Abdel Kawy (EGY)

8 (9) Laura Massaro (ENG)

9 (7) Madeline Perry (IRL)

10 (10) Shelley Kitchen (NZL)

Australians

11 (11) Kasey Brown (AIS Scholarship)

24 (26) Donna Urquhart

48 (40) Lisa Camilleri (AIS Scholarship)

62 (64) Melody Francis

63 (61) Amelia Pittock

89 (91) Zoe Petrovansky (AIS Scholarship)