Joelle powers through in straight sets over Delia.
An excellent October for Joelle King has seen the Kiwi rise seven places in the WSA World Tour November rankings to occupy the No.5 spot.
The 24-year-old from Cambridge, New Zealand has enjoyed a remarkable run of form in the past month. Not only did she claim the Macau Open as top seed, but was just six-points away from upsetting top seed Nicol David as a qualifier in the World Series Delaware Investments U.S. Open semi-final in Philadelphia a week earlier. She capped off the best run of her career to date as seventh seed in last week’s China Open where she beat higher seeds Annie Au and Alison Waters before losing out to returning champion Low Wee Wern in the final.
King is the first Kiwi to reach the WSA World Tour top 5 since former world No.1 Carol Owens. Shelley Kitchen also came close, reaching No.6 in September 2008.
Englishwoman Alison Waters has more reason to celebrate after her fourth consecutive rise up the rankings sees her occupy the world No.4 spot, which she last held back in September 2010. The right-hander from Middlesex has continued to play above her seeding since returning from an Achilles injury at the beginning of the year. She qualified for the main draw of the U.S Open to reach the quarter-finals before falling to Nicol David, and lost out to King in the semi’s of the China Open.
Also joining top level movers is Low Wee Wern, who moves closer to her national compatriot Nicol David as she jumps to world No.7, her highest ever ranking. The Malaysian gained the biggest title win of her career last week after winning the China Open for the second time, following the competition’s recent upgrade to a WSA Gold event.
Also in the Top 10, Raneem El Weleily retakes the No.2 spot from Laura Massaro after beating the Englishwoman in the U.S Open semis. Jenny Duncalf moves down to six, whilst Nour El Sherbini and Annie Au and Madeline Perry all move down three places to accomodate the rising trio.
Egyptian Omneya Abdel Kawy has enjoyed a return to her form that once saw her reach No.4 in the world, following some impressive the results in the Far East. As eighth seed, she finished runner-up in the Macau Open, before reaching the quarters in China as a qualifier. The 27-year-old from Giza has risen six places this month to sit at No.22. Just below her at No.23, Aisling Blake sits one place off the highest ranking she reached exactly two years ago, moving up three places.
Joshna Chinappa is the highest mover inside the top 50 after a Macau semi-final appearance as a qualifier, and winning the Penang Open title saw the Indian jump 19 places to No.32.
Sarah-Jane Perry jumps ten places to No.35, her highest world ranking, following her Pyramid International title win in New York last week. Queensland Open winner Amanda Landers-Murphy also jumps four places to gain her career best ranking of 42. Kylie Lindsay and Liu Tsz-Ling reach highest rankings for the second consecutive month, reaching No.34 and 37 respectively.
RANK PLAYER COUNTRY Prev Pos
CHANGE
TOTAL
PLAYED
(12 MONTHS)AVERAGE
1 Nicol David MAS 1
27985.00
10
3292.353
Track
2 Raneem El Weleily EGY 3
+1
16245.00
10
1911.176
Track
3 Laura Massaro ENG 2
+1
13327.00
10
1567.882
Track
4 Alison Waters ENG 8
+4
9973.00
12
1049.789
Track
5 Joelle King NZL 12
+7
9811.50
12
1032.789
Track
6 Jenny Duncalf ENG 4
-2
8775.00
10
1032.353
Track
7 Low Wee Wern MAS 9
+2
10305.00
13
1030.500
Track
8 Nour El Sherbini EGY 5
-3
8121.25
9
1015.156
Track
9 Annie Au HKG 6
-3
9502.00
13
950.200
Track
10 Madeline Perry IRL 7
-3
7349.00
13
734.900
Track
11 Natalie Grinham NED 10
-1
5785.00
9
723.125
Track
12 Kasey Brown AUS 11
-1
6914.00
13
691.400
Track
13 Dipika Pallikal IND 14
+1
6535.75
12
687.974
Track
14 Camille Serme FRA 13
-1
6385.00
12
672.105
Track
15 Samantha Teran MEX 16
+1
5997.50
12
631.316
Track
16 Rachael Grinham AUS 15
-1
5739.75
14
546.643
Track
17 Donna Urquhart AUS 17
6392.50
18
491.731
Track
18 Joey Chan HKG 18
4585.00
12
482.632
Track
19 Jaclyn Hawkes NZL 19
4048.00
11
449.778
Track
20 Amanda Sobhy USA 21
+1
3138.00
9
392.250
Track
