Iker Pajares Bernabeu joined the PSA World Tour in 2013, and he has gone on to take on the Spanish No.1 mantle from Borja Golan, and is now a member of the world’s top 25.

The Spaniard’s first semi-final appearance on the Tour came at the XVI Trofeu Internacional Ciutat de Barcelona in 2015, where he was beaten by George Parker, more semi-final appearances followed for the rest of the season.

In 2016, Pajares reached his first final at the Seapiax Open Lorient where he finished runner-up to Carlos cornes Ribadas before opening his PSA World Tour title account later in the year at the City of Prague Open.

Pajares beat Jan Koukal 11-8, 11-9, 8-11, 11-6 to lift his maiden PSA World Tour title. Further titles soon followed for Pajares when he beat Edmon Lopez in the Otters International JSW ISC final and then at the Malaysian Squash Tour VII to clinch victory over Chi Him Wong.

More titles soon followed in 2017 this time clinching victory at the Seapiax Lorient Open and Jersey Squash Classic when he beat Martin Svec and Jaymie Haycocks respectively.

The Spaniard went on to win two more tournaments that year, claiming victory at the Barcelona Squash Open and the Qatar Circuit No.5 event. Pajares has gone on to win silverware in both of the last two seasons, winning the Betty Griffin Memorial Florida Open in 2018, before taking the Migdal Insurance PSA 11k TelAviv trophy in his last appearance of the 2018-2019 season. With those performances, the Spaniard has broken into the top 50 in the World Rankings for the first time in his career.

The Spaniard started the new campaign well by reaching the last 16 of the J.P. Morgan China Squash Open, and consistently made it to the last 32 of major tournaments throughout the season. His breakout on the big stage came at the Windy City Open presented by the Walter Family in 2020, where he reached the third round of a Platinum level tournament for the first time in his career. Those performances saw him break into the top 30 in the World Rankings for the first time.

Just prior to that, Pajares was a key member of the Spanish team that finished in 8th at the 2019 WSF Men’s World Team Squash Championship in Washington, D.C., as the nation recorded its best ever result at the sport’s premiere team event.

In his only appearance on the Challenger Tour in 2020, the Spaniard made the final of the Costa Del Sol Open on home soil, losing out to Bernat Jaume. After a couple of early exits to start 2021, Pajares made it through to the third round both the Allam British Open and the CIB Egyptian Open that summer.

That was followed by also making it into the last 16 of both the Canary Wharf Classic and the CIB Squash Open Black Ball, before he then claimed his 10th PSA Tour title, with a win at the Challenger 10 level RFES Spanish Open Ciudad de Palencia at the end of the year.

He then started 2022 with a semi-final result at the Squash On Fire Open, before making a first Platinum quarter final in his next appearance. He did so at the Windy City Open presented by the Walter Family, and Pajares then started the new season with another last eight appearance. That came at the Open de France de Squash and he followed it with another quarter final at the Hong Kong Football Club Open.

The Spaniard reached the semi-finals of the Squash on Fire Open in the early part of 2023, before making the last 16 of both the British Open and the Manchester Open. He finished the 2022-2023 campaign with a quarter final appearance at the El Gouna International, his second appearance in the last eight of a major tournament. That result saw Pajares jump back into the world’s top 20 once again.