Hashim Khan
Nour El Sherbini
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Dead even across the measured categories. Our all-time ranking places Hashim Khan at #6 and Nour El Sherbini at #8.
The case for Hashim Khan
The founder. A court professional from Nawakille near Peshawar who learned the game as a ball boy on British army courts, Hashim Khan flew to England in 1951, aged around 35 — his birth year is disputed between 1914 and 1916 — and won the British Open at his first attempt. He took seven British Open titles in eight years, the last in 1958, when he was in his forties, and continued winning North American professional events into his fifties after moving to Detroit. The World Open did not exist in his time, so his major count understates him. His real legacy is dynastic: brother Azam Khan won four British Opens, cousin Roshan Khan won in 1957, nephew Mohibullah followed, and Roshan's son Jahangir became the greatest player of all. Pakistani squash held the sport's summit for four decades and every strand of it traces back to him.
The case for Nour El Sherbini
The defining player of the Egyptian age and the youngest women's world champion in history, winning her first World Championship in 2016 at 20 after reaching the final at just 16 in 2012 — the youngest finalist ever. By the 2024-25 season she had assembled seven world titles, behind only Nicol David's record eight, plus multiple British Opens and long spells at world number one that have traded back and forth with her compatriots Raneem El Welily, Nouran Gohar and Hania El Hammamy. Her squash is the clearest statement of the modern Egyptian template: elite movement combined with holds, disguised drops and an ability to attack from positions where earlier generations would have played safe. She won world junior titles before she was 16 and has stayed at the top for more than a decade, an unusual longevity in a system that burns through prodigies, and she is the athlete most likely to carry Egypt's flag into the 2028 Olympic tournament.