Results to 26 October 2026.
In late 2022 Amina Orfi was 15 and had just broken into the world’s top 125. In September 2026 she was world No.1, at 19. It took her 46 months, the fastest climb to the top of the women’s game that we can measure; Mostafa Asal’s 57 months from No.250 is the fastest of the men’s.
Most No.1s needed far longer. The typical climb took eight to nine years (median 92 months for men, 105 for women), and for several of them the hardest part came right at the end. Hania El Hammamy spent 61 of her 128 months in the top 5, one or two places from the top, before she finally got there.
Key findings
- Mostafa Asal and Amina Orfi made the fastest measured climbs to world No.1.
- A long climb is not always a slow one: some players rose fast, then waited years just below No.1.
- An early start does not make a fast climb.
- Only the Khans reached No.1 younger, and women’s No.1s are getting younger while men’s are not.
How we measured the climb
The clock starts when a player joins the tour for good and stops at their first week as world No.1.
- Starting line: world No.250 for men, No.125 for women. The women’s ranking list has been about half the size of the men’s in every era (243 vs 405 players in 2005, 515 vs 1,023 in 2025), so 125 is the equivalent mark.
- One continuous climb: the clock starts at the last time a player entered that range and stayed in it until reaching No.1. A player who drops out (university, injury) restarts the clock on their return. Ali Farag first reached the top 250 in 2011, but his clock starts in February 2014, after his years at Harvard.
- Junior years count: today’s juniors play the professional tour full time, and most No.1s reached the starting line at 13 to 17.
- Who is included: the 14 No.1s whose whole climb is visible in the ranking lists: men from mid-2004 and women from 1997, when the lists first go deep enough. For earlier No.1s the lists are too short to show when they reached the starting line.
The climb in five stages
A long climb can mean a slow rise or a long wait at the top, and the two look very different once the climb is split by the ranking reached.
- The fastest finishers: Mostafa Asal went from the top 5 to No.1 in 12 months. Karim Gawad was the slowest of the men to reach the top 10 (seven years), then went from there to No.1 in 18 months, as fast as Asal.
- The long waits: Hania El Hammamy spent 61 of her 128 months in the top 5, mostly at No.2 or No.3, while Nour ElSherbini and then Nouran Gohar held No.1. Gohar had waited 49 months in the top 5 herself before her first No.1 in July 2020. Ramy Ashour reached the top 5 at 19 and waited almost three years.
- The early start: El Hammamy’s clock also started very early: she was inside the top 125 at 14, so more than four years of her climb came before she turned 19.
- The middle stages: Diego Elias spent almost four years between the top 10 and the top 5.
- The longest climb: Laura Massaro took 15.5 years and reached No.1 at 32, with more than four years each between the top 10 and the top 5, and between the top 5 and No.1.
Take-away: A long climb is not always a slow one: some players rose fast and then waited years just below No.1.
The paths to No.1
The same climbs month by month: every line starts at the starting line (month 0) and ends at the first No.1, so the steepest line is the fastest climb. Hover a line to see the player, date and ranking.
- Fast starts: Ashour, Farag and Asal were inside the top 10 within 23 to 38 months; among the women, Orfi took 22 months and ElSherbini 35.
- Stuck in the pack: the slowest climbs spent years between No.11 and No.30: Raneem El Welily 63 months, Laura Massaro 52 and Karim Gawad 36.
- Stuck at the top: the women’s lines that run flat along No.2 and No.3 are the long waits: El Hammamy almost four years there (47 months), Massaro and El Welily about three years each.
Take-away: The fastest climbers were in the top 10 within a few years; the slowest got stuck for years in the pack between No.11 and No.30.
A closer look: Asal and Orfi
The two fastest climbs, milestone by milestone. Hover a marker for the date and age.
- Mostafa Asal went from No.250 to the top 100 in a single month in 2018, aged 17, then spent two and a half years between No.50 and the top 10. From there it was quick: top 5 six months later and No.1 in January 2023, at 21.
- Amina Orfi passed No.125 and the top 100 within a week in late 2022, aged 15. She was in the top 50 six months later, the top 10 at 17 and No.1 in September 2026, at 19.
Take-away: Asal and Orfi made the fastest measured climbs of the men and the women: once they started, they hardly stopped.
The climb by age
The same lines again, now against the player’s age. The line furthest to the left reached each ranking youngest.
Orfi is furthest left of all: No.1 at 19. Asal and Ashour were No.1 at 22, while Paul Coll and Laura Massaro got there at 30 and 32. Farag’s line starts late, at 21, because his clock restarts after Harvard.
Take-away: Orfi reached No.1 younger than anyone else here, while the late bloomers got there past 30.
How old they were at each step
- An early start: every player here except Farag (21.8) and Coll (19.2) was inside the starting line by the age of 17, and four of the women at 13 or 14.
- But an early start is not a fast climb: Raneem El Welily and Nour ElSherbini both started at 13; ElSherbini was No.1 at 20, El Welily at 26.
- The top 10: Ashour was in the top 10 at 19.1 and ElSherbini at 16.6; Coll got there at 25.3 and Massaro at 23.3.
- The final step: Orfi went from the top 5 to No.1 in a year and a half, between 17.7 and 19.2.
Take-away: Nearly every No.1 started young, but an early start does not make a fast climb.
The youngest No.1s
The fastest climbers are also the youngest No.1s of the modern era. Across every No.1 since the rankings began, only the Khans reached the top younger than Orfi and Asal.
- Youngest ever: Jahangir Khan was 18.1 when he first became No.1 in January 1982, and Jansher Khan 18.6 in 1988.
- Youngest woman: Amina Orfi, 19.2 in September 2026, a year younger than Susan Devoy (20.2 in 1984).
- Youngest man since the Khans: Mostafa Asal, 21.7 in January 2023.
- Women’s No.1s are getting younger: the median age at a first women’s No.1 was 26.7 in the 2000s and 22.8 in the 2020s. For men it has stayed at 26 to 27 since the 2000s.
- Late bloomers: Laura Massaro was 32.2 and John White 30.7.
- A caveat: Qamar Zaman (1975) and Vicki Cardwell (1983) were already No.1 on the first ranking lists we have, so they may have reached No.1 earlier, and younger.
The next fast climb may already be under way. Watch the teenagers in today’s top 20: the last two record climbs both started at 15 or 17.
Take-away: Only the Khans reached No.1 younger than today’s fastest climbers, and women’s No.1s are getting younger while men’s are not.
Notes on the data
- Sources: world ranking lists from SquashInfo, filled in with the PSA’s own ranking history for weeks SquashInfo does not have. Dates of birth from PSA player profiles and Wikidata.
- Accuracy: the lists are monthly until mid-2022 and weekly since, so times are accurate to about a month (a week for the most recent climbs). The women’s lists of 2000 to 2002 are months apart at the depth we need, so Raneem El Welily’s and Laura Massaro’s start dates are accurate to within about six months.
- Nationality: each player is shown with the country they represented when first No.1 (Mohamed ElShorbagy: Egypt).
Over to You
Who in today’s top 20 will be the next first-time No.1, and how fast will they get there? Tell us in the comments below.