The new World No1, England’s James Willstrop celebrated two things: 1st to be back on top and 2nd, the release of his book “Shot and a Ghost”. After last month’s victory of the North American Open Willstrop opened up a 250 point lead over his new nearest rival, the Frenchman Greg Gaultier, who to the No2 position.
But Willstrop's latest success in Virginia, coupled with a shock semi-final exit by his fellow Yorkshireman, sees the new North American Open champion take pole position in the rankings while Matthew slips to third place – his lowest ranking since December 2009!
A trio of Egyptians occupy the next 3 places in the rankings: Karim Darwish at 4, Ramy Ashour at 5 and Amr Shabana in 6th place.
March 2012 top 20 (inc. points average):
1 [2] James Willstrop ENG 1,546
2 [3] Gregory Gaultier FRA 1,296
3 [1] Nick Matthew ENG 1,261
4 [4] Karim Darwish EGY 965
5 [5] Ramy Ashour EGY 872
6 [6] Amr Shabana EGY 640
7 [7] Peter Barker ENG 635
8 [8] Mohamed El Shorbagy EGY 622
9 [9] Laurens Jan Anjema NED 468
10 [10] Mohd Azlan Iskandar MAS 404
11 [12] Daryl Selby ENG 394
12 [13] Thierry Lincou FRA 380
13 [14] Omar Mosaad EGY362
14 [11] Hisham Mohd Ashour EGY 350
15 [15] Cameron Pilley AUS 349
16 [17] Adrian Grant ENG 319
17 [16] Alister Walker BOT 312
18 [20] Simon Rosner GER 307
19 [18] Tarek Momen EGY 304
20 [19] Tom Richards ENG 283
