Forty-one meetings, twenty-seven finals and still going: the head-to-heads that have defined the PSA and WSA tours since 2000.
Results to 30 October 2026.
Every sport is told through its rivalries. Tennis had Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova, who met 80 times, and then Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal; boxing had Ali and Frazier; Formula 1 had Senna and Prost. Few fans remember the scores of most matches, but they remember who played whom, and how often the same two names met when it mattered most.
A great rival does more than stand in the way. Each forces the other to find something new: a shot to cover a weakness, a better level of fitness, a plan for the one opponent who knows their game inside out. Rivalries often cross generations, too. A champion at the peak meets the player who will take over, and for a few years the tour belongs to both of them, until one wins the argument or the other moves on. A rivalry is also where the lead changes hands, and the sport’s history turns.
In squash the best rivalries bring out the best squash. Since 2000, the best-of-five matches between pairs who met 20 times or more went to a fifth game one time in four (24.7%), against one in six (15.9%) on the tour as a whole. Some of that is simply the level: finals of any kind go the distance 22.5% of the time. But the pattern runs through this article: the closer two players are, and the more often they meet, the harder every game becomes.
Nour ElSherbini and Nouran Gohar have played each other 41 times on tour since 2000, more than any other pair. Twenty-seven of those matches were finals, and in 2024 alone they met in eleven finals, every one of their meetings that year. ElSherbini leads 25–16, but Gohar has won the last four, the most recent at the CIB Egyptian Open in October 2026.
But the most-played is not the greatest. Score every rivalry on how often the players met, how close they were in the rankings and in their matches, and how often they met in semi-finals and finals, and ElSherbini v Hania El Hammamy comes out on top for the women, Gregory Gaultier v Nick Matthew for the men.
Plenty of others come close. Gregory Gaultier and Amr Shabana were separated by a single match after 29. Raneem El Welily and Nour ElSherbini finished 12–12, and 8–8 in their 16 finals. And some rivalries never were: ElSherbini has played Olivia Weaver 18 times and won every one.
Tip: every chart is interactive. Hover over it (or tap it on a phone) to see the full record of each rivalry: finals, five-setters and how the last meeting ended.
Key findings
- Gaultier v Matthew and ElSherbini v El Hammamy are the greatest rivalries since 2000 on our score.
- ElSherbini v Gohar is the most-played rivalry, and the great finals rivalry of the era.
- Count points instead of matches and even one-sided rivalries look close.
What counts as a meeting
- Since 2000: that is when the records of the tours become complete. Before 2000 most tour events are listed with their final only (half of them in 1999, and two in three or more earlier in the 1990s), so a head-to-head from those years would be little more than a list of finals. That leaves out the great rivalries of the 1980s and 1990s, such as Jahangir Khan v Jansher Khan; a rivalry that started before 2000, such as Peter Nicol v Jonathon Power, counts from 2000.
- Tour matches only: every PSA and WSA tour match, at any stage: main draws, qualifying and the round robins of the World Series and Tour Finals.
- Played matches: walkovers don’t count; retirements do.
- Not counted: national championships, the Commonwealth and World Games, masters events and exhibitions. That is why Nick Matthew and James Willstrop meet 36 times here and not 50: their British National finals and Commonwealth Games meetings are not tour matches.
What makes a great rivalry
Playing often is not enough. Nicol David met Rachael Grinham 37 times and won 31; that is a long run of wins, not a rivalry. So we score every rivalry with 15 or more meetings out of 100, from five things, each worth up to 20 points:
- Meetings: how often they played, against the most-played rivalry on the same tour (41 for the women, 36 for the men).
- Close in the rankings: how far apart they were in the world rankings when they met. Level scores full marks; an average gap of ten places or more scores nothing.
- Even record: how close the head-to-head is. 14–14 scores full marks, 28–0 nothing.
- Close matches: the share of their matches that went to five games, or in which the winner took no more than 55% of the points.
- Big stage: how late in events they met, where titles are won. A final counts in full, a semi-final two thirds and a quarter-final one third; earlier rounds count nothing.
The five parts count equally. Making any one of them count double changes the order further down, but not the leaders: Gaultier v Matthew stays first for the men every time, and for the women ElSherbini v El Hammamy stays first unless meetings count double, which puts ElSherbini v Gohar ahead.
- Gregory Gaultier v Nick Matthew (76) is the greatest men’s rivalry since 2000: 36 meetings, 19–17, an average of 2.6 places apart in the rankings, and 26 of them in semi-finals or finals.
- Mostafa Asal v Diego Elias (71) has met only 22 times, but 15 of those were close and 17 were semis or finals, and no men’s pair was closer in the rankings (2.2 places apart on average).
- Nour ElSherbini v Hania El Hammamy (73) just tops the women’s list ahead of ElSherbini v Gohar (72): 20 of their 31 matches were close, and 28 were semi-finals or finals, the highest share of any women’s pair.
- Gohar v El Hammamy (67) were the closest women’s pair in the rankings, 2.2 places apart on average when they met.
- Ramy Ashour v Nick Matthew met in the semis or final 24 times out of 26, more often than any other men’s pair.
- Ali Farag v Mohamed ElShorbagy (68) climbs to fourth on the strength of 15 finals, the most of any men’s rivalry since 2000.
Take-away: Playing often is not enough: the great rivalries are close in ranking and in record, and played out in finals.
The most-played rivalries
- ElSherbini v Gohar, 41 is the most-played rivalry on either tour. The men’s record is 36, shared by two rivalries of Nick Matthew: against Gregory Gaultier (Gaultier 19–17) and James Willstrop (Matthew 27–9).
- Nicol David is in six of the women’s top ten: against Rachael Grinham (37 meetings, David 31–6), Laura Massaro (34), Natalie Grinham (33), Jenny Duncalf (31, David 29–2), Raneem El Welily (28) and Alison Waters (28, David 26–2).
- Ali Farag has four of the men’s top ten, all from the last decade: Diego Elias (35), Mohamed ElShorbagy (31), Paul Coll (31) and Mostafa Asal (30). He leads all four.
Take-away: The most-played rivalries belong to the greats of each era, often against several rivals at once: Nicol David then, Ali Farag more recently.
A map of the rivalries
What makes a great rivalry: playing often, or being close? This map shows both at once. Every rivalry with 15 or more meetings is a bubble: further right means more meetings, lower down means closer, and the bubble’s size is the number of finals. The great rivalries sit at the bottom right; the one-sided ones line the top.
- The closest: Gregory Gaultier has the three closest long men’s rivalries: 15–14 against Amr Shabana, 19–17 against Nick Matthew and 15–13 against James Willstrop. Among the women, Laura Massaro v Raneem El Welily and ElSherbini v Hania El Hammamy are both 18–13 over 31 meetings, and both went to a fifth game twelve times. El Welily v ElSherbini (24 meetings) finished level at 12–12, and 8–8 in finals.
- The most one-sided: ElSherbini 18–0 Olivia Weaver and Hania El Hammamy 15–0 Tinne Gilis, both still going; Mohamed ElShorbagy 16–0 Simon Rösner (2011–2019); Rachael Grinham 15–0 Engy Kheirallah; and Nicol David against Madeline Perry (22–1) and Annie Au (19–1).
Take-away: Many long rivalries are one-sided; the truly close ones are rare, and Gregory Gaultier is in three of them.
How the rivalries swung
Records over a whole career hide the swings. Each line follows one of the most-played rivalries meeting by meeting: it goes up one step when the leader wins and down one when the other player does.
- Gaultier v Matthew never strayed far from level: in 36 meetings over 16 years, neither was ever more than five wins ahead.
- Matthew v Willstrop. Willstrop led 6–4 after their first ten meetings, by 2006. From then Matthew won 23 of the remaining 26, including all nine of their finals from 2009 to 2016.
- Farag v Elias. Elias won two of their first five, and then Farag won the next 13, from 2017 to 2022.
- David v the Grinhams. Rachael Grinham won her first four meetings with Nicol David (2000–2004); David won 31 of the next 33. Against Natalie Grinham, David won 15 of their 16 finals.
- David v Massaro. David won the first nine and was 16 ahead by 2014; from then Massaro won six of their last eight.
- ElSherbini v Gohar. ElSherbini was 14 ahead in 2024. Gohar has won eight of their eleven meetings since, including the last four.
Take-away: A career record hides long swings: many of the great rivalries changed hands, some more than once.
Closer in points than in matches
A match record makes even a close rivalry look one-sided. Count the points instead, every point of every game they played against each other, and the gaps nearly disappear.
- Farag 30–5 Elias in matches, but only 1,353 points to 1,085.
- The widest gaps in points of any rivalry with 20 meetings are Nicol David’s over Omneya Abdel Kawy (23–2) and Jenny Duncalf (29–2), and even they are only 63% to 37%.
- More points, fewer wins: James Willstrop won more points than Amr Shabana (973 to 965) and lost 19–11. Paul Coll won more points than Mohamed ElShorbagy (850 to 833) and trails 14–12.
- The median: across every rivalry with 20 meetings or more, the leader won 53% of the points.
Take-away: Count points instead of matches and even one-sided rivalries look close: the leader typically wins little more than half the points.
The finals rivalries
- ElSherbini v Gohar, 27 finals (ElSherbini 17–10), far ahead of the rest.
- Nicol David v Natalie Grinham, 16 finals, David winning 15. El Welily v ElSherbini, 16 finals, 8–8.
- Farag v ElShorbagy, 15 (Farag 8–7), the men’s leader, ahead of Ashour v Matthew and Nicol v Power (13 each).
Take-away: ElSherbini v Gohar is the great finals rivalry of the era, far ahead of any other on either tour.
The big seven since 2016
Since 2016 the big finals (the World Championship, the Tour Finals and the Platinum events) have gone to a small group on each tour. Here are the seven men and seven women who have played the most of them, each against the others. Read across a row for that player’s record against each opponent.
- Ali Farag has a winning record against every one of the others except Marwan ElShorbagy (8–8), including 30–5 against Diego Elias.
- Mostafa Asal leads every one of them except Farag (11–19): 8–2 against Mohamed ElShorbagy, 12–2 against Karim Gawad and 10–2 against Marwan ElShorbagy.
- Diego Elias trails only Farag and Asal: he leads Mohamed ElShorbagy (13–7), Paul Coll (11–9), Karim Gawad (10–6) and Marwan ElShorbagy (13–4).
- ElSherbini and Gohar both dominated Nour El Tayeb: 16–3 and 16–4.
- Raneem El Welily had the measure of Gohar (11–4) and was level with ElSherbini (9–9).
- Hania El Hammamy never beat El Welily or Laura Massaro (0–2 against each).
- Amina Orfi, the newest of them, leads ElSherbini 4–3.
Take-away: Among the men, Farag and Asal had the measure of the rest; among the women, no one leads every rival.
The rivalries to watch
Pairs who have met since the start of last season (August 2025).
- Women: ElSherbini v Gohar (41), Gohar v El Hammamy (33, Gohar 22–11) and ElSherbini v El Hammamy (31), three of the Egyptian world No.1s of the last decade.
- Men: Mohamed ElShorbagy v Paul Coll (14–12) and Diego Elias v Coll (11–9) are the closest of today’s long rivalries. Mostafa Asal leads Coll 16–8 and Elias 13–9; half of the Asal–Elias matches (11 of 22) have gone to five games, the highest share of any rivalry with 20 meetings or more.
Rivalries are made over years, not weeks, so the next great one may already be under way, a few meetings in, waiting for the finals that will decide it.
Take-away: The women’s rivalries to watch are all Egyptian; the men’s are spread across countries, and Asal v Elias is the one most likely to go to five.
About the data
- Results: the draws of PSA and WSA tour events from 1 January 2000 to 30 October 2026.
- Players are matched by their player ids, so a change of name (after marriage, for example) does not split a rivalry. Players appear under their latest name, or the one they played under if they changed it after retiring.
Over to You
Which rivalry would you put at the top, and which one is about to become great? Tell us in the comments below.