Fifty years of world rankings show which countries have ruled squash, how they did it, and why Egypt’s reign looks different from the ones before it.
Results to 26 October 2026.
Pakistan, Australia, England, Egypt: every squash fan can name the countries that have had their spell at the top. But how dominant were they really, and for how long? To find out, we went through every world ranking list since 1975 (men) and 1983 (women) and counted, country by country, who held the places in the world top 10. And because the question everyone asks is whether Egypt’s grip is finally loosening, we end with where things stand today.
Key findings
- The top 10 has belonged to one country at a time, and today that country is Egypt, on both tours.
- Eras start with a wave of young players and end when the squad grows old with no one behind it.
- Egypt’s eras were announced in the juniors about a decade earlier.
- The top 10 is as concentrated today as it was in the Pakistan and Australia eras.
How we measure dominance
Our unit is the player-month: one player in the top 10 for one month. A year has 120 of them (12 months × 10 places), so a country with one player in the top 10 all year earns 10% of them, two players 20%, and so on. Players count for the country they represented at the time, so Peter Nicol is Scottish until 2001 and English after, and Mohamed ElShorbagy is Egyptian until 2022.
We call a country dominant in a year when it holds half the top 10 or more, and leading when it holds the most places with at least 30%. A run of leading years makes an era.
Tip: every chart is interactive. Hover over it (or tap it on a phone) to see the players, years and numbers behind each bar, line or square.
Before the rankings
The world rankings only start in 1975 for the men and 1983 for the women, so everything here begins there. Squash had great players and dominant countries long before that, and they are not in these numbers: Egypt’s first golden age in the 1930s and 40s (F.D. Amr Bey, Mahmoud Karim), the Khan dynasty that made Pakistan the force of the 1950s and 60s (Hashim, Roshan and Azam Khan), Jonah Barrington and the young Geoff Hunt in the 1960s, and Heather McKay, whose near-unbeaten Australian reign over the women’s game ended before the women’s rankings began. When the rankings start, Pakistan and Australia were already on top: we see the middle and the end of their stories, not the beginning.
The standings
Egypt’s men have spent more months in the top 10 than any other country: 1,392 player-months, 22% of all of them since 1975. Australia (1,193) and England (1,139) are close behind. Pakistan is fourth with 878, and remarkably got there with just 12 different players.
On the women’s side England are clear leaders with 1,830 player-months, more than a third of the total since 1983. Australia have 1,019 and Egypt 799, a number that is climbing fast.
Counting players rather than months tells a different story. England have put 23 men and 25 women into the top 10, more than any other country, but only a handful stayed there for long. Australia and Egypt match England’s 23 men; Pakistan reached their total with half as many.
At the very top, Egypt stand alone. Seven Egyptian men have been world No.1 (Shabana, Darwish, Ashour, ElShorbagy, Gawad, Farag and Asal) and five Egyptian women (El Welily, El Sherbini, Gohar, El Hammamy and Orfi). Pakistan had only three No.1s, but between them Qamar Zaman, Jahangir Khan and Jansher Khan held the top spot for more than 900 weeks.
Take-away: Egypt’s men and England’s women have spent the most time in the top 10, but at the very top Egypt stand alone, with more world No.1s than any other country.
The eras
Put the years in a row and the eras appear.
Men. Pakistan ruled the late 1970s: on every complete list from 1975 to 1980 they held five or six of the ten places, with Qamar Zaman, Mohibullah Khan, Gogi Alauddin, Hiddy Jahan, Torsam Khan and Maqsood Ahmed. Yet the world No.1 for most of that time was an Australian, Geoff Hunt, until Jahangir Khan took over in 1982.
Australia then led for a decade (1985–1994) with Chris Dittmar, Rodney Martin, Brett Martin, Chris Robertson, Tristan Nancarrow and Ross Thorne, peaking at 55% of the top 10 in 1988. But No.1 stayed in Pakistan: Jahangir and Jansher Khan held 83% of the weeks at the top in the 1980s and 79% in the 1990s.
England led briefly in the mid-1990s (Chris Walker, Del Harris, Simon Parke, Peter Marshall) and again in 2005–2006 and 2010 with Peter Nicol, Lee Beachill, Nick Matthew and James Willstrop. In between, the top was shared more widely than ever. Then came Egypt: a first spell in 2007–2009 with Amr Shabana, Ramy Ashour and Karim Darwish, and, from 2011, an unbroken run that is still going. Egypt held half the men’s top 10 or more every year from 2016 to 2024, peaking at 65% in 2021.
Women. England led the 1980s (Lisa Opie, Martine le Moignan, Lucy Soutter, Alison Cumings), Australia took over around 1990 (Michelle Martin, Liz Irving, Sarah Fitz-Gerald), and England then led for almost two decades, 1992 to 2010, with Cassie Jackman, Linda Elriani, Tania Bailey, Vicky Botwright, Jenny Duncalf and Alison Waters. It is the longest era in the women’s game, but England rarely had the No.1: that belonged to New Zealand’s Susan Devoy in the 1980s, Australia’s Martin and Fitz-Gerald in the 1990s, and Malaysia’s Nicol David for most of the 2000s and 2010s.
Egypt have led the women’s top 10 every year since 2015, and in 2021 and 2022 held more than half of it.
Take-away: The top 10 has belonged to one country at a time: Pakistan, Australia, England and then Egypt for the men; England, Australia, England again and then Egypt for the women. Egypt’s run is still going.
Starting and ending an era
How eras begin
Almost every era started the same way: a generation of young players breaking into the top 10 within two or three years of each other, most of them aged 18 to 22.
- Pakistan (men) were already in charge when the rankings begin: the first list, in July 1975, has five Pakistanis in the top 10, aged 19 to 25.
- Australia (men) built up gradually. Glen Brumby (22) broke in in 1982, Chris Dittmar (20) and Ross Thorne in 1984, and Australia’s share rose from 15% in 1983 to 35% in 1985.
- England (men) arrived all at once: from 5% of the top 10 in 1992 to 45% in 1995, as Peter Marshall (21), Chris Walker, Tony Hands, Simon Parke (22), Mark Cairns and Mark Chaloner came through between 1992 and 1996.
- Egypt (men) went from nobody in the top 10 in 2002 to 30% in 2007, with Karim Darwish (21), Amr Shabana and Ramy Ashour (19). A second wave led by Mohamed ElShorbagy (19, in 2010) turned that into the era that is still running.
- Australia (women): four players reached the top 10 in the same year, 1987: Michelle Martin (20), Liz Irving, Robyn Lambourne and Sarah Fitz-Gerald (18). Two years later Australia led.
- Egypt (women) waited longer. Omneya Abdel Kawy and Raneem El Welily were there first, but the era began when the teenagers arrived: Nour El Sherbini at 16 in 2012, Nouran Gohar at 18 in 2015. Egypt’s share doubled in that one year, from 21% to 43%.
How eras end
Eras rarely collapse. They fade, and the pattern is the same each time: the squad gets older, few new players come through behind it, and a rival generation arrives at the same moment.
- Pakistan (men) grew old together. The average age of their top-10 players rose from 23 in 1975 to 27 by 1983. Gogi Alauddin (30) and Mohibullah Khan (25) left the top 10 in 1981, Hiddy Jahan in 1983 at 33 (he reappears a year later, playing for England), and only Maqsood Ahmed and Jahangir Khan came through behind them. By 1985 Australia’s new generation (Glen Brumby, Chris Dittmar, Ross Thorne, Greg Pollard) had taken over. Jahangir, of course, kept the No.1 spot for years to come.
- Australia (men) ended with the oldest squad of any era, nearly 29 on average, and only one new player, Rodney Eyles, in its last five years. Then the squad retired: Chris Robertson in 1992, Chris Dittmar in 1993, Tristan Nancarrow in 1994 and Rodney Martin in 1995, just as England’s new generation (Peter Marshall, Chris Walker, Simon Parke) arrived.
- England (men) had no second wave: Peter Marshall left the top 10 in 1995 aged just 24, Mark Cairns in 1996, Del Harris and Chris Walker by 1999, and no single country replaced them. The open years of the early 2000s followed.
- England (women) faded slowly. Their top-10 squad shrank from five to three (Jenny Duncalf, Laura Massaro and Alison Waters by 2010), Tania Bailey and Vicky Botwright left the top 10 in 2008 (Botwright retired the year after), and only two new English women reached it in the era’s last five years. No other country led until Egypt in 2015.
- Australia (women) are the exception: their era ended young (average age 24.5) because England’s next generation (Sue Wright, Cassie Jackman, Fiona Geaves) arrived, not because their own players faded.
And Egypt? None of the usual warning signs, yet. The average age of Egypt’s top-10 men is 26.5 today, against 26.5 when the era began, and five Egyptian men have reached the top 10 for the first time since 2022. What did happen is a changing of the guard: Ali Farag (No.1 for 239 weeks) and Tarek Momen both retired in 2025, and Mazen Hesham dropped out of the top 10 the same year, which is most of the fall in Egypt’s share. The women’s squad is younger still (24 on average) and keeps renewing itself, with Amina Orfi and Fayrouz Aboelkheir replacing Nour El Tayeb and Rowan Elaraby. The one missing ingredient for a handover is the rival generation: today’s challengers are individuals from many countries, not a wave from one.
Take-away: Eras start with a wave of young players breaking through together, and end when that squad grows old with no one behind it and a rival wave arrives. Egypt shows none of those signs yet.
Did the women follow the men?
Only in Egypt. Egypt’s men passed 20% of the top 10 in 2004 and 30% in 2007; the women reached the same marks in 2014 and 2015, eight to ten years later. By the 2020s the two had caught up with each other, peaking a year apart (men 65% in 2021, women 54% in 2022).
Elsewhere there is no such pattern. Australia’s men and women rose, peaked (1988 and 1990) and faded together. England is the reverse of Egypt: the women’s game was England’s strength, with 40% or more of the women’s top 10 for most of the years from 1983 to 2003, while the men only had short spells. And Pakistan, for all its men’s titles, has never had a woman in the world top 10.
Take-away: Only in Egypt did the women follow the men, about a decade later; elsewhere the two tours went their own way.
Share of the top 10
The share chart shows the same story as flows: Pakistan’s slide in the 1980s as Australia rises, England’s long plateau, France’s spell in the 2000s, and the Egyptian climb: past 30% in 2007 for the men, and from 21% to 43% in a single year, 2014 to 2015, for the women.
Take-away: Every era shows in the shares, and none rose faster than Egypt’s women, who doubled theirs in a single year.
Who held No.1
The very top has always been owned by one or two countries per decade. Egypt have held 94% of the men’s weeks at No.1 in the 2020s so far, and every single week of the women’s.
Take-away: The No.1 spot is even more concentrated than the top 10: in the 2020s it has been almost entirely Egyptian.
Built from the juniors up
Egypt’s reign was announced long before it arrived. Egyptian women won the World Junior Championship in 2003, 2005, 2007 and 2009, and at every edition from 2011 to 2019 and from 2022 to 2025: 16 of the 18 titles since 2005. Egypt reached 30% of the women’s senior top 10 in 2015, about twelve years after the first of those junior titles. Egypt’s men show the same pattern a decade earlier: junior titles from 1994, a senior era from 2007.
The team titles back up the eras: Pakistan’s men won six of the nine World Team Championships from 1977 to 1993, Australia’s women six of the seven from 1992 to 2004, and Egypt have won six of the nine men’s and six of the nine women’s team titles held since 2005.
Take-away: Egypt’s senior eras were announced in the juniors about a decade earlier: the junior titles came first, the senior top 10 after.
Younger than the rest
Egypt also took over with younger players. Egyptian women in the top 10 have been, on average, three to seven years younger than the rest of the top 10 ever since they arrived: about 22 in the late 2000s against 28 for everyone else. The men’s gap was similar during their rise (about 21 against 27 in the late 1990s), but it has closed: in the 2020s Egypt’s top-10 men are about as old as their rivals.
Take-away: Egypt took over with younger players than everyone else. The men’s age gap has since closed; the women’s has not.
Is the top more open than before?
Whoever is leading, how widely is the top 10 shared? The effective number of countries is 1 if one country holds every place and 10 if ten countries have one player each. The 2000s were the most open decade for the men (nearly five countries on average) and the late 2000s and early 2010s for the women. Since then the top has narrowed again to about three countries, as concentrated as it was in the Pakistan and Australia eras.
Take-away: After a much more open 2000s, the top 10 is now as concentrated as it was in the Pakistan and Australia eras.
Where things stand today
On the latest list (26 October 2026) Egypt hold both No.1 spots: Mostafa Asal, 25, leads the men by a distance (2,318 points to Paul Coll’s 1,734), and Amina Orfi, just 19, leads the women. Egypt have four of the men’s top 10 and four of the women’s.
So is the grip loosening? For the men, less than it looks. Egypt’s share of the top 10 has fallen every year since its 2021 peak: 65%, then 60%, 51%, 51%, 47% and 41% in 2026 so far. But much of that is two players changing flags. Mohamed and Marwan ElShorbagy switched from Egypt to England in 2022; counted as Egyptians, Egypt would have held 65 to 70% of the men’s top 10 from 2023 to 2025, its highest ever, and England none of it: the brothers were England’s entire top-10 presence from the switch until Jonah Bryant reached No.10 in April 2026. The rest of the fall is the 2025 retirements of Ali Farag and Tarek Momen. Egypt’s share of the top 50 has stayed flat at about 29% for ten years. The challengers are spread out (Coll for New Zealand, Diego ElÃas for Peru, Victor Crouin for France, Joel Makin for Wales) rather than coming from one rival country, and Egypt’s next wave is already here: Mohamad Zakaria, world junior champion three years running, is No.4 at 19.
Switching country is not new. Hiddy Jahan moved from Pakistan to England in 1984, Peter Nicol from Scotland to England in 2001, and Carol Owens (Australia to New Zealand), Natalie Grinham (Australia to the Netherlands) and Natalie Grainger (South Africa to England to the USA) all changed flags while in or near the top 10. We always count a player for the country on the ranking list at the time.
For the women it is the opposite. Egypt’s share of the top 10 is steady at about 45%, but behind it the depth keeps growing: 23 of the top 50 and 34 of the top 100 are Egyptian, up from about a quarter of the top 50 in 2019. The first crack may be in the juniors: in 2026 India’s Anahat Singh became the first non-Egyptian girls’ world junior champion since Amanda Sobhy of the USA in 2010.
Take-away: Egypt still lead both tours. The men’s share has fallen, but mostly through flag changes and retirements, and the next wave is already here; the women’s depth keeps growing.
Why Egypt?
The numbers show how Egypt rule: depth, a steady supply of junior champions who become senior champions, and youth. They do not show why. For that, see Diligencia’s Squash and the Egyptian formula for sporting success and the New York Times’ A squash mystery in Egypt: is there something in the Nile?.
About the data
- World ranking lists since July 1975 (men) and April 1983 (women), with PSA ranking history added from 2024. Nothing before those dates is counted: players and eras from earlier (see “Before the rankings”) are not in the standings, eras or charts.
- A list is used only where every place in the top 10 is known. Before about 2000 that is only a few lists a year (other months show just the top few players), so early years rest on fewer lists; the lines use a three-year average and the hovers say how many lists each year is based on.
- Player-months: the share of a year’s complete lists a player was on, times 12. Tied ranks (two players at No.10) are shared.
- World titles: World Squash Library finals of the World Championships, World Junior Championships and World Team Championships.
- Ages from birth dates on PSA, Wikidata and the players’ profiles. Retirement years from the players’ English Wikipedia pages, where they give one; otherwise we say when a player left the top 10 (ranking points carry over for a while, so that can be a year after retiring: Chris Dittmar retired in 1993 and was still in the top 10 in 1994). Today’s top 10: the PSA ranking list of 26 October 2026.
Over to You
Which country will break Egypt’s hold on the top 10, and when? Tell us in the comments below.