CHRIS SIMPSON has broken into the world’s top 40.

The new monthly ranking came out this week and the Sarnian has moved up four places to No. 38 following some good results in the BSPA Elite Series and reaching the qualifying final of the Saudi International.

The 22-year-old admitted that he was ‘pretty chuffed’ with his new career-best ranking.

The man who beat him in the Saudi qualifying final, Daryl Selby, has risen to No. 21.

‘I won the first game and had chances to go 2-0 up in a very close second, but couldn’t quite snatch it,’ said Simpson.

‘After that it was always going to be a struggle as I wasn’t all there physically.’

Simpson (pictured) explained that there was a good reason why he was not 100%.

‘Just after I got back from my trip to Guernsey, I started to feel ill and eventually found out I had glandular fever, which can be quite troublesome in athletes as it takes a long time for your immune system to fully recover,’ he said.

‘I had to stop training completely for three weeks and hadn’t really done much work before the Saudi qualifications.

‘This week, I was meant to be playing the US Open, but decided to withdraw to rest and try to make sure I am OK for the British Open next week.’