Greatest Squash Player: Jonathon Power & Raneem El Welily Voted Number 5

Over the last month, we have given squash fans the chance to decide the greatest players in squash history as we looked over the achievements and legacies of some of the most recognisable names ever to take to a squash court.

The votes are now in and we will be announcing the results in descending order to when we reveal the official men’s and women’s GOAT.

20th Place – Don Butcher & Sheila Macintosh
19th Place – Roshan Khan & Sue Cogswell
18th Place – Azam Khan & Anna Craven-Smith
17th Place – Abdelfattah AbouTaleb & Sue King
16th Place – Ahmed Barada & Joyce Cave
15th Place – F.D. Amr Bey & Silvia Huntsman
14th Place – Mahmoud Karim & Nancy Cave
13th Place – Qamar Zaman & Janet Morgan
12th Place – Jonah Barrington & Rachael Grinham
11th Place – Peter Nicol & Vicki Cardwell
10th Place – Hashim Khan & Margot Lumb
9th Place – Mohamed ElShorbagy and Liz Irving
8th Place – Geoff Hunt and Michelle Martin
7th Place – Gregory Gaultier and Laura Massaro
6th Place – Nick Matthew and Sarah Fitz-Gerald

In 5th place…

Jonathon Power

Nationality: Canadian
Highest World Ranking: #1
World Open titles: 1
Word Open finals: 1
British Open titles: 1
British Open finals: 1
Commonwealth Games Gold Medals: 1

An iconic player of not just his era but throughout the history of squash, Jonathon Power, achieved all the major accolades in the sport.

Power made history in 1999 when he became the first North American squash player to reach the World No.1 ranking. He also won 36 top-level squash events during his glittering career, including the World Open in 1998 and the British Open in 1999.

Power began playing squash at the age of seven and turned professional at the age of 16. After joining the PSA World Tour in 1991 he went onto win 36 tournaments and appeared in 58 finals.

The Canadian is considered to be one of the greatest shot makers in the history of the game, having perfected a wide range of drop shots and deception shots.

He was often a crowd favourite partly because of his emotional outbursts and verbal exchanges with referees which sometimes led to him being compared with tennis great John McEnroe. Power’s rivalry with Peter Nicol was one of the most famous and extended in the history of the game.

Power’s biggest career wins came in 1998 when he defeated long-standing rival Nicol in the final of the World Open and in 1999 when he defeated the Scotsman once again, this time in the final of the British Open to take the sport’s oldest crown.

Other career highlights include the Super Series Finals (2003 & 2005), the PSA Masters (2001, 2002 & 2005), the Tournament of Champions (1996, 1999, 2000 & 2002) and the men’s singles Gold Medal at the 2002 Commonwealth Games.

In 2006, Power returned to the World No.1 ranking, four-and-a-half years after the previous time he was ranked in the top spot (marking the longest gap between periods of holding the World No.1 ranking of any player in history).

He lost the World No.1 ranking in February 2006 to David Palmer but regained it again on 1 March 2006 before announcing his retirement one day later.

Raneem El Welily

Nationality: Egyptian
World Championship Titles: 1
World Championship Finals: 3
British Open Titles: 0
British Open Finals: 1
PSA Tour Titles: 17

The first female Egyptian in any sport to become World No.1, Raneem El Welily is one of the most enigmatic squash players of all time and her capacity for shot-making and unpredictable nature on court has made her a firm favourite with fans across the world.

Alexandria-born El Welily looked destined for greatness from an early age as she dominated the junior scene, becoming only the second player after Nicol David to win two World Junior Championships, the latter of those coming in 2007, while she also won the prestigious British Junior Open six times across three age groups.

Two years after her World Junior Championships triumph, El Welily captured her maiden PSA title and made the step up to win a first World Series crown in 2012 at the Malaysian Open.
A first appearance in the final of the senior World Championships then followed two years later for the Egyptian and she looked certain to take the title after a confident performance saw her build up four championship balls against the legendary Nicol David in Cairo.

She squandered that lead to miss out on becoming the first female Egyptian to win the biggest prize in squash, but recovered to win four titles in 2015 which helped her end David’s nine-year reign at World No.1, etching her name into Egyptian folklore.

Her reign atop the World Rankings lasted four months, but she remained a regular in the latter stages of the sport’s biggest tournaments and reached the final of the World Championships in April 2017, before nerves got the better of her as she went down to compatriot Nour El Sherbini.

But she avenged that defeat eight months later as she met the current World No.1 in the final of the same tournament in Manchester, this time coming out on top to finally get her hands on the iconic trophy.