Just above El Weleily, England’s Laura Massaro has once again leapt above Ireland’s Madeline Perry to equal her highest ranking to date of no.3.

The two remain unchanged with Nicol David extending her reign at no.1 to 67 months whilst Jenny Duncalf stays at no.2 for her 23rd month in a row.

Natalie Grinham moves up a single place to no.7, her highest position since August 2010. Grinham won her 17th WSA tour title in January at the prestigious Tournament of Champions, a tournament making its return to the WSA tour after a couple of years. In the final she beat Indian star Dipika Pallikal, who this month has more reason to celebrate as she makes further history in her country by reaching a career high ranking of 14. As well as reaching the final at TOC, she also reached the semi finals at the Greenwich Open. Mexico’s Samantha Teran, a fellow Greenwich Open semi finalist, moves up 1 spot to 11 to equal her highest ranking to date.

Just outside the top 20, 16 year old Egyptian star Nour El Sherbini rises to 23 after reaching the semi finals of the Tournament of Champions.

There were further players who recorded significant career highs in the top 100 for:
NSC Series no.2 Champion Siti Munirah Jusoh at 39
Hong Kong’s Liu Tsz-Ling - a two time runner-up in January at 50
Australia Day Champion Sarah Cardwell at 55
Edinburgh semi-finalist Zephanie Curgenven at 83
Pakistan’s Liberty Bell Champion Maria Toor Pakay up a massive 73 places to 89

Urquhart will face reigning Cleveland Classic champion Laura Massaro in the next round, after the Englishwoman beat Malaysian Low Wee Wern. Massaro took a well-deserved lead early on thanks to some strong lengths and canny shot selection. Wee Wern, still only 21-years-old, fought well and managed to claim the third game, before Massaro’s experience saw off the contest after 53-minutes.

The last remaining US hopeful Amanda Sobhy played well in front of home-crowds as she dispatched the experienced Rachael Grinham in straight-games. Grinham’s error count was unusually high, frequently hitting the tin early on to allow Sobhy the opportunity to establish and hold a lead from the start. From there the Harvard student found a consistent length to trouble her opponent and her intelligent use of drop shots eased her unfancied progression to the next round to play Jenny Duncalf.

No2 seed Duncalf beat English compatriot Sarah Kippax after a well-contested effort from the qualifier. After registering a controlled first-game victory, Duncalf was troubled by a more settled game-plan by Kippax, but at the midway stage of the second game, play was halted after the higher ranked played sustained a nasty blow to the knee from a Kippax racket-swing. An injury break of nearly 20-minutes was held whilst Duncalf recovered, but Kippax was clearly embarrassed by the incident and seemed unable to regain the focus she had found early on. The 3-0 result that followed was a hollow victory for the world number two.

There was nearly a surprise result at the top of the drawer, as Nicol David was forced to five-games against New Zealand qualifier Joelle King. Last week’s Greenwich Open finalist went two games down against the world No1 and David’s progression seemed inevitable as she took a 6-1 lead in the third game.

King tried a last-ditch change of tactic however, and launched upon an impressive attacking tirade to come from behind and claw back a game in her favour. More of the same followed in the fourth game as King drew level, standing firm as David looked to extend the rallies and look for signs of weakness in her opponent’s game.

At 6-5 up, King looked on the verge of a momentous upset but the world No1, using all her experience from years at the top of the sport, further tightened her width and won six points in a row to sneak ahead of the 23-year-old and progress to the quarters.

David will play Annie Au of Hong Kong in the next round, who should be well rested following the withdrawal of her first round opponent Camille Serme, following a last minute back injury.

No4 seed Madeline Perry looked to get over her disappointing Greenwich Open exit last week, with a strong 3-0 win over qualifier Jaclyn Hawkes. Hawkes, perhaps fatigued after an close 80-minute scrap with Emma Beddoes in qualifying finals the day before, was never able to establish herself against the experienced Irishwoman.

Perry’s progression sets up an intriguing quarter final clash with young Egyptian Raneem El Weleily, winner of last week’s Greenwich Open. The world No7 from Alexandria faced a stern test against former world No2 Natalie Grinham, who herself saw victory last week, winning the WSA Tournament of Champions title in New York.

Both players tend to favour the attacking drop shots and there was nothing separating the pair at 11-11 in the first game. Grinham showed little concern for the score line as she slotted in a crosscourt nick from well behind the service box, taking her to a game ball that she was able to convert. El Weleily struck back, extending a 7-point lead in the second game before a lapse in concentration saw Grinham back in the hunt at 8-7. Refocused, the Egyptian got her head down and saw off the game to draw level at 1-1.

In the third, El Weleily was able to string together a whole game of dominance, with Grinham unable to respond. But again some youthful erraticism crept into her play in the fourth and allowed Grinham a glimmer of hope at 8-4. The Egyptian flicked the switch back on though, and with some racket wizardry, worked seven out of the next eight points in her favour, to progress through to the next round.

Quarter final draw:

[1] Nicol David (MAS) v [8] Annie Au (HKG)

[4] Madeline Perry (IRL) v [7] Raneem El Weleily (EGY)

[3] Laura Massaro (ENG) v [Q] Donna Urquhart (AUS)

[2] Jenny Duncalf (ENG) v Amanda Sobhy (USA)

1st round results:

[1] Nicol David (MAS) bt [Q] Joelle King (NZL) 11-4, 11-9, 9-11, 8-11, 11-7 (63m)

[8] Annie Au (HKG) bt Camille Serme (FRA) w/o

[4] Madeline Perry (IRL) bt [Q] Jaclyn Hawkes (NZL) 11-7, 11-9, 11-6 (35m)

[7] Raneem El Weleily (EGY) bt Natalie Grinham (NED) 11-13, 11-7, 11-4, 11-9 (36m)

[Q] Donna Urquhart (AUS) bt [5] Kasey Brown (AUS) 10-12, 11-7, 11-6, 13-11 (62m)

[3] Laura Massaro (ENG) bt Low Wee Wern (MAS) 11-4, 11-5, 9-11, 11-5 (53m)

Amanda Sobhy (USA) bt [6] Rachael Grinham (AUS) 11-3, 11-7, 11-2 (19m)

[2] Jenny Duncalf (ENG) bt [Q] Sarah Kippax (ENG) 11-8, 12-10, 11-7 (52m)

Photo by jordanmansfield.co.uk

SkySports continued their live coverage at Queens Club in London, for the final day of the event that saw the reigning world No1 contain a spirited challenge from Madeline Perry, ranked two places below her.

Perry, who knocked out England’s home hope Jenny Duncalf in yesterday’s semi final, played a confident game from the start and took an early lead in the first game.  David wasn’t going to let her opponent build up too much of an advantage however, and was always within touching distance.

The scores stayed tight right the way up to 9-all, with Perry stepping forward to volley early and easily matching the higher seed for width and precision.  It was only at this stage that David upped the pace, working Perry out of position and finishing off two rallies to take the first game 11/9.

This became the pattern for the rest of the match too. Neither player was ever more than three points away from one another, as the finalists seemed to cancel each other out with their efforts.  Similarly, at 9-all in the second game, Nicol again found an extra half-yard of pace and her lethal attacking shots saw off the second game in her favour, also 11/9.

Just as in the previous games, the score-line showed exactly how closely fought this contest was, with every bit of ground gained by one player, the other would immediately pull level.  The standard of line and length squash on display was at it’s highest all week and easily the most closely matched contest of the week.  Again the scores were tied at 8-8 and again, Perry seemed to lack the quality finishing in the most important periods of the match.  David on the other hand, held game-ball’s in the first two games and finished each off on the first time of asking.  Match-ball was a similar story, with Perry managing to reduce the deficit by one point before David claimed the title as her own.

Photo by jordanmansfield.co.uk

The Malaysian played five matches this week and dropped just one game, coming at the hand of Laura Massaro in the semi finals.  No player deserved a game more than Perry today for a sterling effort against the world No1 but on this occasion it wasn’t to be.

David said after winning the title: “Winning the World Series Finals title is a great start to 2012 and having the top 8 players here and contending for it makes it very special.  It’s never easy but I’ve felt good all week and very pleased to be playing well.  Hopefully there’s more to come!

“Knowing that tonight was going to be a longer game felt weird after playing best of three all week.  It felt like a longer game today, which is strange as yesterday I played three game too, but I don’t tend to approach matches differently depending on that.   I played well during the crucial points tonight and I’m delighted to have won.”

Photo by jordanmansfield.co.uk

Posing with men's champion, Amr Shabana

ATCO World Series Final

Nicol David bt Madeline Perry – 11/9, 11/9, 11/9 in 41mins

View all fantastic photos by Jordan Mansfield here.

Momentum was really with David following the quick second game and she shot out of the blocks again to a 4-1 lead. Massaro was able to show only glimpses of her first game form as David upped her game to such an extent that the English No2 was extremely limited with her attacking options. David marched on to hold seven match balls and consummated her progression to tomorrows final with an 8/11, 11/4, 11/3 win in 33mins. 

Continuing the battle at the top of the WSA rankings, world No2 Jenny Duncalf then played No3 Madeline Perry. Some very close early exchanges saw neither player take an advantage, until Duncalf, using front court boasts to good effect, extended the biggest gap of the game so far at 6-4. The lead didn’t last long though, and the game continued to be neck and neck until the tiebreak at 10-all. Neither player deserved to lose such a tightly contested first game, but Duncalf edged another game ball and was able to finish off the game, 13/11. 

Perry fought back in the second, taking a 5-1 lead early on as Duncalf struggled to exert the same pressure she had in the first game. The Northern Irish international’s lead grew, and on the whole proved too consistent for Duncalf, who did manage a small fight back towards the end of the game but the deficit was too great and Perry took the game, 11/8. 

The third game was a similar story. Duncalf’s retrieval efforts were starting to slow, with Perry appearing to have worn down her opponent and as a result, the error count began to rise. Perry’s length had been accurate all match and that didn’t look like wavering and her tactics were spot on for containing the Englishwoman’s attacking efforts, as she edged towards her place in tomorrow’s final. Perry held firm as she booked her place in the final, overcoming Duncalf 11/13, 11/8, 11/5 in 42mins. 

Perry spoke afterwards of her joy at reaching the final of the event: “It was a really close first game. It could have gone either way really and I felt I was playing well anyway. I just kept that going really in the next game and she started to make a few errors, and I wore her down. I was really happy with how today went.”

“It’s great to be in a World Series Final and it’s going to be tough playing the world No1 in the best of 5 tomorrow. It’s a great occasion, all the girls were so excited this morning about being live on Sky. Obviously we’ve done television before but Sky TV is an extra step up and it’s a really great opportunity.”

ATCO World Series Finals: Semi final
Nicol David beat Laura Massaro – 8/11, 11/4, 11/3 (33mins)
Madeline Perry bt Jenny Duncalf – 11/13, 11/8, 11/5 (42mins)

ATCO World Series Final
Nicol David vs Madeline Perry

[All match photography available at http://jordanmansfield.co.uk]

Camille Serme and Donna Urquhart were first on court, with Serme needing a win to stand a chance of progressing from Group A. Neither player completely dominated the first game, but Serme pulled ahead of her opponent at 7-all to gain the upper hand. A late Urquhart surge saw the Australian pull level, but Serme held her nerve and closed the game out 11/9.

Urquhart showed a more consistent performance in the second game, cutting out the errors, chasing relentlessly and she deservedly took a close 11/8 win. As the game progressed, Urquhart’s confidence grew and with it, her anticipation of Serme’s attacking shots also improved. This attribute frustrated Serme, but retrieved well and there was nothing separating the pair throughout. At 8-all it could have gone either way, but Urquhart came through to take the match, and consigning Serme to third place in the group, just missing out on the qualification spot.

Massaro needed a win against her opponent Low Wee Wern to see her through to the semi finals, having had a day off yesterday due to Rachael Grinham’s withdrawal. The England No2 made short work of things in the first game, with her opponent amassing just three points.

More of the same confident squash followed, with Wee Wern struggling to establish herself at all on court.  Massaro length was tight and she pushed forward on the tee well and ran out the game 11/4.

For the third match in a row, Nicol David started quickly against Madeline Perry, jumping to a 6-2 lead.  From here, she rode out a confident game 11/6. The second game was a much closer affair. Despite Nicol again winning six points on the bounce, Perry found her range and was much more dangerous hitting into the corners. The game saw plenty of down-the-wall squash, with neither play wanting to give each other a hint of an opportunity. David held two match balls at 10-8, but was unable to apply the finishing touch and Perry forced the tiebreak at 10-all. A succession of three let balls in a row followed, all from backhand drives showed just how tight the game had become, and only a stroke in favour of David broke the deadlock. From there, she needed only one more opportunity to finish of the match 12/10.

Day three WSA ATCO results:
Donna Urquhart beat Camille Serme – 9/11, 11/8, 11/8
Laura Massaro beat Low Wee Wern – 11/3, 11/4
Nicol David beat Madeline Perry – 11/6, 12/10

Day four WSA ATCO Semi final lineup:
2pm – Nicol David vs Laura Massaro
following on – Jenny Duncalf vs Madeline Perry

Match photography available at http://www.jordanmansfield.co.uk

Rachael Grinham

First onto court was Madeline Perry against Camille Serme.  The cool conditions on court seemed to better suit Serme in the opening exchanges and she confidently attacked with dropshots and picked off Perry’s loose shots from the tee.  At 3-9 down, Perry began to show signs of improvement, finding a tighter length and moving her opponent around but the French international was too far ahead and Serme closed out the game 11-6.

Perry settled in well after the break and shot ahead to a 6-0 lead utilising a faster pace and much improved width.  With her improved range, she closed out the second game 11-5 with Serme unable to mount any consistent challenge.  Serme handed her opponent a further lead early in the first game, with a number of errors, but  kept her nerve to stay close to her Irish opponent and took the lead at 7-6 with a renewed attacking style and saw out the match 11/7.

Nicol David continued her progression through the group stages with a controlled and precise 2-0 win over Australian Donna Urquhart.  The Malaysian played a tight and patient game from the start and was quite happy to wait for her chances to attack, and for errors from her opponent. Urquhart was limited to only the occasional scoring chance throughout the match, and under pressure hit a number of balls out of court. David is through to the next round now after consecutive 2-0 wins, with Madeline Perry still to play tomorrow.

Due to Grinham’s withdrawal, Jenny Duncalf versus Low Wee Wern played the final WSA match of the day. The first game was a close affair, with Duncalf always slightly ahead of her Malaysian opponent. After establishing a small lead early on, she did enough to stay ahead of Wee Wern throughout the game and closed out a 11/7 win. The Englishwoman took an early lead in the second, winning five points in a row and putting herself in a good position to see out the game. Wee Wern’s strong retrieval kept the match from being a whitewash, and she came close to a comeback in the second game after some good recovery squash forced some errors from the England No1.  Duncalf weathered the storm though and came through her second win of the group stage with an 11/7, 11/8 win.

Day2 ATCO World Series Finals results:
Camille Serme bt Madeline Perry – 11/6, 5/11, 11/7
Nicol David bt Donna Urquhart – 11/4, 11/4
Jenny Duncalf bt Low Wee Wern – 11/7, 11/8
Rachael Grinham vs Laura Massaro – [Rachael withdraws from competition due to injury]

Day 3 fixtures:
Camille Serme vs Donna Urquhart
Laura Massaro vs Low Wee Wern
Nicol David vs Madeline Perry

WSA Women’s Groups
Group A
Nicol David (Malaysia)
Madeline Perry (N.Ireland)
Camille Serme (France)
Donna Urquhart (Australia)

Group B
Jenny Duncalf (England)
Rachael Grinham (Australia)
Laura Massaro (England)
Low Wee Wern (Malaysia)

All tournament photograpy available at:  http://www.jordanmansfield.co.uk

6 time world champion Nicol David retains her spot at the top for another month andJenny Duncalf makes it a further month at no.2. Madeline Perry leaps back above Laura Massaro to return to number 3 whilst Rachael Grinham also jumps back above Kasey Brown to return to number 5.

Natalie Grinham moves up to number 8, her highest ranking since August 2010.Samantha Teran’s strong year in 2011, including a semi final place at the World Open has seen her move up one to number 12, her highest ranking since November 2010 and one away from her highest ranking of 11.

Dipika Pallikal won her 3^rd title of 2011 in December at the Crocodile Cup in Hong Kong beating Joey Chan in a thriller, 14-12 in the 5^th. This win sees the Indian number 1 record another milestone as she moves up 2 places to a career high of number 15. Her opponent in the final, Joey Chan, also reaches a career high by moving up 1 place to number 19.

Outside the top 20 there were career highs by a number of players:

Swiss no.1 Gaby Huber moves up to no.29.
World Junior Semi-Finalist Emily Whitlock moves up to no.33.
Australia’s Melody Francis, winner of 5 WSA titles in 2011 moves up to no.34.
Japanese no.1 Misaki Kobayashi moves up to no.37.
Canadian no.1 Samantha Cornett moves up to no.42.
Czech no.2 Olga Ertlova moves up to no.46.
French no.2 Coline Aumard moves into to the top 50 at no.50 for the first time.
England’s Sarah-Jane Perry moves up to no.65 after winning her first title at the Manor Open.

There were further career in the top 100 for:
Korean no.1 Ahn Eun Chan moves up to no.52, New Zealand’s Amanda Landers-Murphy moves up to no.54, Hong Kong’s Liu Tsz-Ling at no.55, Australia’s Sarah Cardwell at no.57, Brazilian no.1 Thaisa Serafini at no.59, Welsh no.1 Tesni Evans at no.60, Australia’s Tamika Saxby at 71, USA’s Kristin Lange at no.80, New Zealand’s Megan Craig at no.81, Australia’s Christine Nunn at no.82, USA’s Elpiniki Clementat no.83, Australia’s Vanessa Pickard at no.84, Canada’s Genevieve Lessard at no.88, England’s Carrie Ramsay at no.89 and Zephanie Curgenven at no.91, France’s Chloe Mesic at no.93, USA’s Sabrina Sobhy at no.95, Scotland’s Alex Clark at no.97 and Australia’s Bethany Brazier at no.98.

Today, Friday 16th 2011, is a red-letter day (literally!) for the newly-christened Women’s Squash Association, WSA - previously known as WISPA, the Women’s International Squash Players’ Association, as it reveals its new brand identity.

In a dramatic and fresh presentation of the women’s game, the launch is led by a new logo which represents all that is best in the game: power, speed and athleticism.

There has been much speculation and not a little amusement about the design of the logo and the inspiration behind it. When it leaked out that the image in the logo is based on a real-life action shot taken by photographer Jordan Mansfield, some mischievous commentators suggested that the model Jordan (aka Katie Price) may have been the model for the shot! Not so; in fact, the WSA is proud to announce that Mansfield’s shot is a classic image of a living legend in the women’s game: the current and 6-times world champion, Malaysia’s Nicol David.

“David exemplifies squash at its best and everything that women bring to the world game and the WSA can think of no better way of reinforcing its new identity than to use an image of her in its logo”, Ingrid Lofdahl-Bentzer, Chairman and acting CEO of WSA commented.

A new website is also being designed as part of the new branding, which will appear early in 2012. It is being planned by design specialists Abstraktion and hosted by website developers Subhub.

Further logos are being added encompassing World Series and the rest of the tour levels.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak will meet David at his office tomorrow (Monday) to congratulate the 28-year-old from Penang on creating history by winning a record sixth world title last month in the Netherlands.

Nicol David followed her World Open success in Rotterdam by claiming her 57th WISPA World Tour title at the Hong Kong Open—but still then found time to lead the WSF Ambassador Programme visit to Latvia at the end of November before heading home to Malaysia for an end-of-year break.

The country’s most successful squash player of all-time was greeted by hundreds of fans on arrival at Kuala Lumpur International Airport—all eager to see her world championship gold medal.

“I played my best match ever to win my sixth World title,” admitted David after her historic Rotterdam triumph.

“But I would happily trade all my six world titles for Olympic Gold.”

Nicol David, No. 1 for 65 consecutive month. Photo courtesy of M. Roslan.

The December rankings were bound to feature some big changes due to the World Open and Hong Kong Open taking place in November. There were career highs aplenty throughout the top 100 and the highest of those was at number 3.

Laura Massaro, the WISPA Player of the Year, has moved into the world’s top 3 for the first time. Massaro started the year ranked at number 10 but after success in Cleveland and the British Nationals as well as the prestigious US Open, she seems to have asserted herself as a major threat to Nicol David’s reign on the women’s game.

The world’s top 2 remain unchanged. Jenny Duncalf reached her first World Open final, showing great form before being outclassed by Nicol David. David had a few surprise losses this year but still has amassed 7 titles, including a record 6^th World Open title. It makes it 65 consecutive months at no.1 for David.

Also in the top 20, Kasey Brown makes her debut in the top 5 becoming the Australian no.1 for the first time as she leaps above Rachael Grinham. Grinham’s drop down to no.6 ends her stay in the top 5, a place she has impressively held since February 2003!

Raneem El Weleily moves back up to a career high equalling no.7 after reaching her first World Series final in Hong Kong. Natalie Grinham moves up one place to no.9, her highest ranking since August 2010, after reaching the World Open semi final in front of her home crowd in Rotterdam.

Low Wee Wern records her highest ranking at no.11. The Malaysian wasn’t having the best year as she saw her ranking drop to 21 in October. Winning the China Open, her biggest title, seemed to change her fortune and she reached the Qatar Classic and World Open quarter finals as well as the Hong Kong Open semi final, with four top 10 wins along the way.

Samantha Teran became the 1^st ever Mexican to reach the World Open semi final as she moved back up to no.13. Dipika Pallikal also became the 1^st ever Indian to reach the World Open quarter final. The Indian star’s shine looks to continue as she moves up to a career high no.17. Joey Chan had a November to remember. She captured her biggest title and first of the year at the Macau Open and then reached the Hong Kong Open quarter final, upsetting Brown before losing a thriller to El Weleily. She makes her top 20 debut at no.20.

There were further career highs in the top 100:
Kanzy El Dafrawy up to no.29 after reaching the World Open last 16. That makes 6 Egyptians in the top 30.
Gaby Huber makes her top 30 debut at no.30. She started the year outside the top 50.
Yathreb Adel up to no.32. The youngest player in the top 100 pushed Massaro in the World Open 1^stround.
Melody Francis captured her 5^th title of the year at the Mackay Open and moves to no.36.
Siyoli Waters at no.38, Misaki Kobayashi up to no.39
Sina Wall up to no.41, Samantha Cornett up to no.44, Lauren Selby up to no.47, Olga Ertlova up to no.48
Ahn Eun Chan up to no.53, Lisa Aitken up to 55, Coline Aumard up to no.56,  Amanda Landers-Murphy to 57, Salma Hany up to no.59.
Tesni Evans up to no.65, Liu Tsz-Ling up to 68, Tamika Saxby up to 73, Kristen Lange up to no.82, Megan Craig up to no.84, Christine Nunn up to no.86 and Vanessa Pickard up to no.90.

The top 20:

You can find the full rankings on the following link:

http://www.wispa.net/view_rankings.asp