Joshna breaks into top 50

India's squash prodigy Joshna Chinappa stormed into the top 50 of the world rankings with a huge leap of 10 places.

The Chennai girl, who had impressed one and all with her performances at the junior level, compiled 627 points in eight events this season.

Joshna made it to the round of 16 at the Crocodile Squash Challenge Cup in Hong Kong, where she lost to world No 13 Shelley Kitchen of New Zealand.

The Indian girl had lost to the same opponent in the first round of the main draw at the Qatar Airways Challenge in Hyderabad.

Malaysian Nicol David upstaged Dutch girl Vanessa Atkinson to take the top women's ranking.

Among the men, Saurav Ghosal climbed two places to 59th in the latest Professional Squash Association rankings.

The Indian ace, who lost in the first round of the Malaysian Open last week, compiled 583.75 points in 11 tournaments this season.

Ghosal had lost after a tough fight with Mohammad Azlan Iskander of Malaysia, the top seed in the tournament and ranked No 12 in the world. Ghosal had made it to the main draw after winning two qualifying round matches.

Ghosal became the second Indian to break into the top 60 in world rankings after Ritwik Bhattacharya, who held on to 43rd place.

Ritwik also fell at the first hurdle at the Malaysian Open, losing to third seed Adrian Grant of England.

Egyptian Amr Shabana continues to head the rankings, ahead of Australian David Palmer.