QUETTA, Oct 6: No Pakistani player has been able to gain a spot in the top 20 in the world professional Squash ranking.

The top position has gone to England's Lee Beachill, according to the new October Dunlop Professional Squash Association (PSA) Men's World Rankings, released by the PSA and made available on Wednesday.

Beachill, the 26-year-old Yorkshireman, has enjoyed a sensational run on the PSA Tour since winning the Qatar Classic, a PSA Tour Super Series event, last December. He went on to lift the Bermuda Open Crown in March and the English Open Trophy in August.

Last month, however, Beachill swept through to the final of the US Open for the first time, and beat defending champion Peter Nicol, then the world number one, to clinch his seventh PSA Tour title.

Beachill has become the fourth player to head the PSA World Rankings in 2004, a year which has already featured more changes at the top than any previous year in the history of the men's rankings.

Beachill's predecessor and compatriot Peter Nicol slipped to three in the new list as Frenchman Thierry Lincou moves up to second place. Australian David Palmer remains at four while England's Nick Matthew rises three places to a career-high world No.5 giving England three players in the top five for the first time ever.

Two other players boast career-best positions in the new list: Englishman Adrian Grant moves up three places to a best-ever No13, while France's Renan Lavigne claims a career-high No17 position.

PSA World Ranking current and previous are as under: - 1 [2] Lee Beachill ENG 2 [3] Thierry Lincou FRA 3 [1] Peter Nicol ENG 4 [4] David Palmer AUS 5 [8] Nick Matthew ENG 6 [5] Amr Shabana EGY 7 [7] John White SCO 8 [9] Karim Darwish EGY 9 [6] Jonathon Power CAN 10 [10] Joseph Kneipp AUS 11 [11] Gregory Gaultier FRA 12 [12] James Willstrop ENG 13 [16] Adrian Grant ENG 14 [13] Anthony Ricketts AUS 15 [14] Omar Elborolossy EGY 16 [15] Mohammed Abbas EGY 17 [19] Renan Lavigne FRA 18 [20] Dan Jenson AUS 19 [17] Graham Ryding CAN 20 [18] Mark Chaloner ENG. -APP