NICOL’S 15-YEAR RUN IN THE WORLD TOP 10 FINALLY ENDS
Nicol slips to 11th – after 177 months in the world’s top 10!
PETALING JAYA: Eight-time world squash champion Nicol David’s impressive 15-year run of being in the top 10 has come to an end.
Nicol has slipped two places to 11th spot in the PSA Women’s World Rankings for October, bringing an end to a record 177-month unbroken run in the world’s top 10.
Nicol, who topped the world rankings for nine uninterrupted years between 2006-2015, also lost her status as the top Asian player.
That honour goes to Annie Au of Hong Kong, who is now ranked 10th in the world.
Annie played a pivotal role in helping Hong Kong to clinch the women’s team gold medal at the Asian Games in Indonesia last month.
It will be a bigger challenge now for Nicol to get back into the top 10 as she will run into any of the top eight players in the quarter-finals in the major championships from now.
Three Egyptians filled the top three spots in respective order – Nour El Sherbini, Raneem El Welily and Nour El Tayeb – with Frenchwoman Camille Serme making up the top four.
S. Sivasangari (pic) remains the second highest ranked Malaysian woman at No. 42, followed by Rachel Arnold (48th) and Low Wee Wern (54th).
Nicol, the Indonesia Asian Games singles gold medallist, will be playing in the US Open starting in Philadelphia this week where she has a chance to make quick amends for her defeat to Laura Massaro of England in the San Francisco Open last week.
Nicol is slated to take on Massaro in the third round of the US Open.
If she beats Massaro, Nicol can expect to confront El Welily in the last eight.