Egypt's former world number one Amr Shabana has reclaimed his place in the top three, according to the new September Dunlop PSA Men's World Squash Rankings published by the Professional Squash Association.
The 30-year-old left-hander from Giza marked his return to the PSA World Tour after four months in style last month by winning the CIMB Malaysian Open, dropping just two games throughout the 5-star tournament.
The success brought the three-time World Open champion's career title tally to 23 - and has led to his first rise in the rankings since April 2006. Shabana has the opportunity to further improve his ranking following appearances in three major PSA Tour events this month - the Aon US Open in Chicago, then the internationalSPORTgroup British Open in Manchester, and finally in the Super Series Platinum Sky Petrosport Open on home soil in Cairo.
Compatriot Karim Darwish celebrateshis ninth successive month as world number one, ahead of Frenchman Gregory Gaultier, who holds onto his career-best position of number two.
And, whilst he retains his career-best fifth position, England's Nick Matthew has narrowed the gap behind world number four Ramy Ashour after reaching last month's Malaysian Open final, the 27th of his career.
Matthew heads a group of five Englishmen in the top 12 - a first. Yorkshire county colleague James Willstrop rises three places to No9, just behind eighth-placed Peter Barker, after making the Malaysian Open semis - and Botswana-born Alister Walker celebrates a career-high No12 position, one place lower than Londoner Adrian Grant.
But the main European success is achieved by Borja Golan, the 26-year-old from Santiago de Compostela who becomes the highest-ranked Spaniard of all-time - moving ahead of nineties star Austin Adarraga - after making his top ten debut at No10. Golan won his 19th Tour title at the Motor City Open in the USA in May, and reached his 27th final in last month's Colombian Open in Bogota.
Golan's breakthrough means that six Europeans are featured in the world top ten.
The two youngest players in the top 20 also celebrate career-best rankings - Pakistan's 19-year-old Aamir Atlas Khan up four places to 14, and 18-year-old Egyptian Mohamed El Shorbagy at 15=.
1[1] Karim Darwish EGY
2[2] Gregory Gaultier FRA
3[4] Amr Shabana EGY
4[3] Ramy Ashour EGY
5[5] Nick Matthew ENG
6[6] David Palmer AUS
7[8] Thierry Lincou FRA
8[7] Peter Barker ENG
9[12] James Willstrop ENG
10[11] Borja Golan ESP
11[9] Adrian Grant ENG
12[14] Alister Walker ENG
13[13] Laurens Jan Anjema NED
14[18] Aamir Atlas Khan PAK
15=[15] Stewart Boswell AUS
15=[17] Mohamed El Shorbagy EGY
17[19] Cameron Pilley AUS
18[20] Olli Tuominen FIN
19[21] Ong Beng Hee MAS
20[10] Wael El Hindi EGY
Issued by iSPORTmedia