Egyptian Nouran Gohar, who yesterday celebrated her 20th birthday, has moved up two places in the latest PSA Women's World Rankings, released today (October 1), to occupy the World No.5 spot in an all-change Top Ten.
The hard-hitting player from Cairo, who last month fell out of the top five for the first time in over a year, enjoyed a purple patch of form throughout September, reaching the final of the J.P. Morgan China Open - where she lost to compatriot Nour El Sherbini, who remains at World No.1 for an 18th consecutive month - before lifting her first title of the season at the Macau Open.
She is now within 200 points of England's former World No.1 Laura Massaro, who occupies the World No.4 berth, while Frenchwoman Camille Serme has moved up one place to a career-high equalling World No.2 - overtaking Raneem El Welily who falls back to No.3, her lowest ranking in six months.
Serme, who was the only player to win two PSA World Series titles during the 2016/17 campaign, is now within 150 points of El Sherbini ahead of the first World Series title of the 2017/18 season - the U.S. Open - which gets underway next week.
Elsewhere inside the top ten England's 27-year-old Sarah-Jane Perry has narrowed the gap on eight-time World Champion Nicol David to less that 20 points courtesy of her victory at the 2017 Oracle NetSuite Open, where she recovered from championship ball down to defeat David in the finale.
American Amanda Sobhy, the Harvard-graduate who has been out injured for over six months, falls out of the Top 10 for the first time two years to be replaced by New Zealand's Joelle King, while her Team USA compatriot Olivia Blatchford moves up one position to No.16.
Blatchford's rise sees Welsh player Tesni Evans drop down two positions to sit just above Australian Donna Urquhart while Egyptian Salma Hany Ibrahim and Hong Kong's Joey Chan swap positions at No.19 and No.20, respectively, to complete the top 20.
PSA Women's World Rankings Top 20 - October 2017
|
RANK
|
NAME
|
NATIONALITY
|
POINTS
|
UP/Down
|
|
1
|
Nour El Sherbini
|
EGY
|
1,383.125
|
=
|
|
2
|
Camille Serme
|
FRA
|
1,252.500
|
↑1
|
|
3
|
Raneem El Welily
|
EGY
|
981.875
|
↓1
|
|
4
|
Laura Massaro
|
ENG
|
975.625
|
=
|
|
5
|
Nouran Gohar
|
EGY
|
784.375
|
↑2
|
|
6
|
Nicol David
|
MAS
|
737.500
|
↓1
|
|
7
|
Sarah-Jane Perry
|
ENG
|
725.000
|
↓1
|
|
8
|
Alison Waters
|
ENG
|
516.875
|
=
|
|
9
|
Annie Au
|
HKG
|
435.556
|
↑1
|
|
10
|
Joelle King
|
NZL
|
405.625
|
↑1
|
|
11
|
Amanda Sobhy
|
USA
|
391.250
|
↓2
|
|
12
|
Emily Whitlock
|
ENG
|
361.250
|
↑1
|
|
13
|
Joshna Chinappa
|
IND
|
355.556
|
↓1
|
|
14
|
Nour El Tayeb
|
EGY
|
354.375
|
=
|
|
15
|
Victoria Lust
|
ENG
|
318.125
|
↑1
|
|
16
|
Olivia Blatchford
|
USA
|
308.333
|
↑1
|
|
17
|
Tesni Evans
|
WAL
|
303.889
|
↓2
|
|
18
|
Donna Urquhart
|
AUS
|
294.444
|
=
|
|
19
|
Salma Hany Ibrahim
|
EGY
|
251.875
|
↑1
|
|
20
|
Joey Chan
|
HKG
|
251.250
|
↓1
|
2017-10-01
