Azlan goes to 13th in rankings

2009/11/04

By Devinder Singh

devinder@nst.com.my

AZLAN Iskandar may have made a premature exit from the World Open in Kuwait on Monday but he is back knocking on the door of the world's top 10.

The 27-year-old shot up seven places to 13th in the PSA Tour world rankings for November after an inspired run to the Hong Kong Open quarter-finals last month.

Azlan suffered a blip in September when his ranking dropped to a five-year low of 23rd but he has since recovered despite the disappointment of defeat at the world meet to England's Daryl Selby in a more than two-hour second round contest.

"Unfortunately it did not go my way. We are both playing well and have been creating the upsets in the last few tournaments but just unlucky we had to play each other.

"I'm a little disappointed but overall I thought we both competed really well. It probably was one of the longest matches I've played.

Azlan Iskandar moves up seven spots to 13th in the PSA Tour world rankings for November after a good showing in the Hong Kong Open last month.

"It's just the way it is. Sometimes you win some and you lose some but on the positive side I'm back at 13th in the rankings and, hopefully, will continue my progress from here," said Azlan, who is set for the Dutch Open later this month.

Ong Beng Hee, who was playing new World No 1 Gregory Gaultier of France in a third round match late yesterday, remained at 19th spot.

But an extended run in Kuwait could see Beng Hee shoot up the rankings in a similar manner to Azlan if he succeeds in becoming the first Malaysian to make the quarter-finals of the men's World Open.

In other changes, national No 3 Nafiizwan Adnan rose eight places to a career-best 53rd as did world junior runner-up Ivan Yuen, who jumped 20 rungs to 70th on the back of his first PSA Tour title in India last month.

On the women's side, Nicol David continues to hold court at the top of the rankings for the 40th consecutive month and is poised to end the year as No 1 for the fourth year running.

National No 2 Delia Arnold slipped one spot to 26th, Sharon Wee held steady at 31st while Low Wee Wern dropped one rung to 36th.