King through to Semis in Chicago

A boost to New Zealand star Joelle King's bid to improve on her current ranking of number five in the world.

The 25-year-old Kiwi is safely through to the semifinals of the Windy City Open in Chicago, although English qualifier Emma Beddoes made King work for her place in the last four.

Beddoes twice fought back from a game down to force the match into a fifth game decider, before King eventually prevailed 11-4, 10-12, 11-5, 9-11, 11-2.

The fourth seed will take on Egyptian world number three Raneem El Weleily for a place in the final.

King remains at number five in the latest WSA rankings, but could close the gap slightly on England's Alison Waters, after the world number four suffered a quarterfinal defeat to France's Camille Serme.

Megan Craig is the next best New Zealander in the rankings, coming in at number 46 on the March list, while Kylie Lindsay is at 48 and Amanda Landers-Murphy is at 49.  Landers-Murphy missed out on a chance to add a few more ranking points to her own tally on Friday, after being forced to withdraw from the final of the WSA event in Montreal.

Landers-Murphy was limping badly during the opening game of the title decider against Egyptian Heba El Torky and after going down 11-1 made the difficult decision to pull the pin.

Meanwhile, Campbell Grayson remains the top ranked New Zealand men's player, despite slipping two places to number 43 on the March list.  Martin Knight has remained steady at number 50 while Paul Coll has climbed three places to 86.

Full rankings...http://www.squashsite.co.uk/2009/rankings.htm