Heather McKay
Hashim Khan
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Heather McKay leads 3 of 4 categories. Our all-time ranking places Heather McKay at #2 and Hashim Khan at #6.
The case for Heather McKay
The most complete domination in the history of any racket sport. McKay lost exactly two competitive matches in her entire career, both in 1962, and was never beaten again — a run of roughly nineteen unbeaten years. She won sixteen consecutive British Opens from 1962 to 1977, when the British Open was the sport's world championship in all but name, and then won the first two Women's World Opens in 1976 and 1979, giving her eighteen major titles. She also won the Australian championship fourteen times. Her superiority was so absolute that contemporaries struggled to describe her weaknesses, and when she retired she switched codes and won the women's world racquetball championship as well. The standard argument against her is field depth: women's squash in the 1960s was smaller and less professional than the men's game. The standard answer is that she never lost to anyone, for two decades, in any of it.
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.