Jansher Khan
Ramy Ashour
Stat by stat
Bars are scaled to the leader in this list.
The verdict
Jansher Khan leads 3 of 4 categories. Our all-time ranking places Jansher Khan at #3 and Ramy Ashour at #12.
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The case for Jansher Khan
The most successful player in World Championship history on the men's side, with eight titles between 1987 and 1996 — one more than Jahangir managed — plus six consecutive British Opens from 1992 to 1997, for fourteen majors. He also accumulated the highest career total of professional tour titles in the men's game, widely cited at 99. No relation to the Khan dynasty of Nawakille despite the name, he lost his first six meetings with Jahangir and then rebuilt his game around retrieval and patience until he had turned the rivalry around; across 37 career meetings the two finished within a match of each other. His style was the purest expression of squash as attrition: extraordinary court coverage, minimal risk, and a willingness to let rallies run until the opponent broke. Injuries and the demands of that method shortened his peak, but between 1992 and 1996 he was effectively unbeatable and closed out Pakistan's four-decade grip on the sport.
The case for Ramy Ashour
The most naturally gifted player squash has produced, and the largest what-if in its history. Ashour won the world junior championship twice, in 2004 and 2006 — the first player to do so — and three World Championships, in 2008, 2012 and 2014, adding a British Open and long spells at world number one. His hallmark was a shot vocabulary nobody else possessed: holds that froze opponents mid-stride, flicked crosscourt nicks hit from impossible positions, and an ability to attack off balls that the coaching manual said must be played safe. At his best, through 2013 and 2014, he strung together long unbeaten runs and was regarded by his peers as untouchable. Chronic hamstring injuries repeatedly cut those runs short and eventually ended his career, and his major total sits well below the players above him. On pure ability, most professionals of his generation still name him first.