19-year-old Kush Kumar continues his surge in the squash world as he has now achieved his career-best ranking of 90th in the latest PSA World Rankings, released on January 1, 2016. The youngster, who won his maiden PSA title in 2015, made a jump of seven spots from his December ranking of 97th.
Saurav Ghosal, meanwhile, continues to hold on to 18th spot. The Kolkata-based ace is currently recuperating at home after suffering from a fatigue fracture on his right foot, sustained during the Hong Kong Open in December.
Mahesh Mangaonkar is the next-highest ranked Indian at 61st. Former national champion Harinderpal Sandhu dropped one spot to be ranked 67th.
In the women’s rankings, India’s golden girls of squash – Joshna Chinappa and Dipika Pallikal – suffered a slide. While Chinappa dropped two places to 15th, Pallikal dropped one spot to be placed at 17th.
Last month, Chinappa reached her career-best ranking of 13 after putting up a splendid performance at the Qatar Classic in November where she toppled the then top-ranked Raneem El Welily en route to the quarter-finals. However, the Chennai native could not follow up her brilliant act as she succumbed in the second round of the Hong Kong Open in December.
Sachika Ingale is the only other Indian inside the top 100. The 21-year-old is ranked at a career-high 84th.
Both the men’s and the women’s world rankings of January, 2016 witnessed some major changes at the top. In the women’s section, Laura Massaro became the third Englishwoman ever to reach the pinnacle, displacing Egyptian El Welily from the No. 1 position. Egyptian El Welily had held the coveted spot from September to December, 2015.
On the men’s side, Egyptian Mohamed Elshorbagy regained the World No. 1 ranking after a gap of just a month. In December, he had conceded the numero uno spot to world champion Gregory Gaultier of France.
The Bristol-based Elshorbagy had previously occupied the top spot for a period of 13 months.
