It’s undoubtedly an amazing achievement. In only twenty years, Egypt tops the international squash rankings.
According to PSA World Squash Ranking in September 2021, Egyptian players dominate the world rankings as four of the top five men are Egyptian: Ali Farag came first, followed by Mohamed el-Shorbagy, second. Eight Egyptians are also among the top 20.
Egyptian women are in the top three and four in the top 10. Nour el-Sherbini is in first place, followed by Nouran Gohar and Nour el-Tayeb in second and third, respectively.
The first professional squash championship was held in 1920 in England.
Amir Wagih, former head coach of the Egyptian National Squash team, said: “Egypt has been there in the championships since the 1930s.
“Abdel Fattah Amr, considered the godfather of squash in Egypt, won the first of his six consecutive British Open championships in 1993,” he added.
Mahmoud Abdel Karim won the title four times from 1947 to 1950. After the 1950s, Ibrahim Amin, Maged Abaza, Tawfik Shafik and Kamal Zaghloul were the big names. In the late 1960s and 1970s, then were Abdel Fatah Abo Taleb, Ahmed Safwat and Mohamed Asran, who were all of top 20 players.
“For around three decades, Egypt has been partly absent in the squash international championships.
“As Egyptian players suffered a lot of fitness problem, the Egyptian national team organised some camps in London to benefit from their expertise.
Special tactics of the Egyptian players combined with the high fitness levels, qualified them again for international titles,” Wagih told the Egyptian Mail.
He pointed out that there are now some 500 young players.
Starting from the mid-1990s, Egyptians started the journey to recapturing the top rankings.
Indeed, one of the main reasons behind the sport owes its popularity at that time in Egypt is president Hosni Mubarak, who loved the sport. He increased government funding to the sport and founded Al-Ahram International in 1996, a men’s squash tournament on the Giza Plateau.
The new generation is representated by Ahmed Barada, who won the World Junior Open in 1994 as well as four British Junior Open titles in 1991-94. He ranked the World No.2 in 1998.
Barada is considered the motivation and inspiration for most of today’s Egyptian squash champions such as Amr Shabana, the first Egyptian to win the World Open in 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2009. He ranked the World No.1 in 2006.
Ramy Ashour, better known as ‘The Artist’, was the youngest player to reach number one in the world since the 1980s, as well as being the first ever two-time World Junior Squash Champion. He retired in 2019 at the age of 31 due to a knee injury.
“I took up squash at the age of six. The Al-Ahram International tournament fascinated me. I trained twice a day as I was determined to be number one worldwide” Ashour told this newspaper.
Ashour said that the World Squash Championship in 2014 in Doha, Qatar, which he won after defeating Egypt’s Mohamed el-Shorbagy in the final, was the hardest. However, he spent seven-months ahead of the championship without training because of injury.
“For me, winning the 2013 Men’s British Open, after beating Frenchman Gregory Gaultier in the final, is the best in my career, becoming the first Egyptian in 47 years to win this prestigious title,” Ashour said.
“Squash is expected to feature in the Olympics 2028 in Los Angles,” Wagih told this paper.
He cited the costly squash courts as one of the key reasons of the absence of the game in the Olympics.
Squash games are not televised because it’s difficult to see the ball.
