In a breakthrough new Women's World Squash Rankings, published for February by the Women's International Squash Players' Association (WISPA), the number of countries represented by players in the top 20 rises to an all-time high of 11.

While Nicol David, of Malaysia, retains the number one position - extending her unbroken reign at the top to 19 months - Samantha Teran makes her debut in the top 20 to become the first ever Mexican to feature in the elite women's list. 

The 26-year-old from Mexico City, a three times Pan American champion, has made significant strides on the WISPA World Tour over recent months - winning the Southport Open and Toronto Open in North America last year, and striking success in the Liberty Bell Open last month in Philadelphia, USA, to bring her Tour haul to eight titles.

The countries represented in the world top 20 now feature Malaysia, Australia, USA, England, New Zealand, Egypt, Netherlands, Hong Kong, Ireland, France and Mexico.

For the purpose of The World Games, where most of these top players are expected to enter the squash tournament, England becomes Great Britain, which in turn could include eligible players from Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales as well.

'It's wonderful to welcome Samantha - and Mexico - into our world top 20 for the first time and see the growing impact of women's squash around the world,' said WISPA Chief Executive Andrew Shelley.  'With new women's events recently in new squash nations such as Iceland, Portugal, Iran, China and South Korea, we will soon be looking forward to extending even further our reach of top 20 players from our ever-increasing international membership.'

New Zealander Shelley Kitchen also has much to celebrate in the new list - after jumping three places to a career-best No7 ranking.  After winning four WISPA Tour titles last year, the 28-year-old from Auckland got her 2008 campaign off to a positive start by claiming the Greenwich Open crown in January - the biggest Tour title of Kitchen's 12 to date.

 

            1          [1]        Nicol David MAS

            2          [2]        Natalie Grinham AUS

            3          [3]        Rachael Grinham AUS

            4          [4]        Natalie Grainger USA

            5          [5]        Tania Bailey ENG/GBR

            6          [6]        Vicky Botwright ENG/GBR

            7          [10]      Shelley Kitchen NZL

            8          [7]        Jenny Duncalf ENG/GBR

            9          [8]        Omneya Abdel Kawy EGY

            10        [9]        Vanessa Atkinson NED

            11        [12]      Alison Waters ENG/GBR

            12        [11]      Laura Lengthorn ENG/GBR

            13        [14]      Rebecca Chiu HKG

            14        [13]      Madeline Perry IRL

            15        [15]      Kasey Brown AUS

            16        [16]      Engy Kheirallah EGY

            17        [19]      Annelize Naude NED

            18        [18]      Jaclyn Hawkes NZL

            19        [17]      Isabelle Stoehr FRA

            20        [22]      Samantha Teran MEX