Understanding Egypt’s Supremacy In Squash

Egypt ruled at the WSF Squash World Team Championships 2024, retaining both the men’s and women’s titles in Hong Kong, China on 15 December.

The men Egyptian team defeated England 2-0 inside the Hong Kong Football Stadium after the women beat the United States by the same scoreline producing a thrilling finale to the 2024 squash season.

This was the seventh world team title for the men, one behind Australia’s record of eight. On the other hand, the women’s team claimed their sixth crown in Hong Kong, winning their fourth consecutive women’s title for Egypt.

Topping the charts at world rankings

The current world rankings feature five male and five female in the top-10 players from Egypt.

Since 2003, an Egyptian has won the men’s world championship an astonishing 14 times, with current men’s world No. 1 Ali Farag responsible for four of those crowns.

The Egyptian women are not far behind with them picking up the last nine titles. Raneem El Weleily, Nour El Sherbini, and Nouran Gohar are responsible for those titles.

Their dominance is equally reflected in the biannual World Team Championships where Egypt have won the four most recent titles in both the men’s and women’s divisions.

The Egyptian legacy is set to continue in the coming years as the next generation is showing equal supremacy. In this year’s British Junior Open – one of the most prestigious tournaments in the world under senior level – every male and female age group from under 11s to under 19s was won by an Egyptian.

Reasons behind Egypt’s squash dominance

Squash was first introduced to Egypt by British soldiers in the early 1930s with the first courts built in Cairo.

Egyptian diplomat Amr Bey first picked up a racket when he travelled to England in 1928. In 1933 he became the first non-English victor of the British Open, which was effectively the sport’s world championship. He went on to win six titles in total, making him ‘the first truly dominant squash player in history’, per the Professional Squash Association.

Let us try to decode the reasons behind Egypt’s brilliance in squash.

The country has taken up several grassroots initiatives and junior tournaments exposing players to competitive environments and high-level competition from an early age.

This helps kids with early opportunities as they hone their skills in formative years.

According to reports, the game of squash has 400 courts and less than 10,000 players in Egypt. For comparison, there are approximately 1.7 million players across 3500 courts in the U.S. while England has around 200,000 players.

All of Egypt’s top players are based at some 10 clubs in Cairo and Alexandria. This lands opportunities for emerging talents to play against and learn from their heroes and highly skilled coaches every day.

The third reason as to why Egyptian players shine above the rest are their unique and trailblazing style. They play with an aggressive approach, less structured style that involves trying to bamboozle an opponent with unexpected drop shots and deceptive wrist flicks.

Also Read: Squash rules, scoring, inventory requirements and marking

 Big prospects at LA 2028

The  imminent Olympic debut of squash at LA 2028 is set to spell a golden era for Egypt. 

To date, the majority of the nation’s nine Olympic gold medals have come in weightlifting. Now, they will potentially add more gold medals with the help of squash.