The future is bright: The top 30 young squash players to watch out for

Ever wondered how the men’s squash rankings might look in five years’ time? Well, look no further: We’ve analysed the top 200 players in the world to bring you a glimpse of what the future may hold for the PSA World Tour.

Aside from the meteoric rise of Mostafa Asal, it’s fair to say the men’s world squash rankings have remained fairly consistent over the past few years. Having recently turned 20 years old, Asal is far and away the youngest player inside the world top 50. Like him or not, with his current world ranking of #9, that’s a staggering achievement.

It’s safe to say there’s been somewhat of a drought of younger talent making their way through the pinnacle of the world rankings – the next youngest player inside the world top 10 is 24-year-old Diego Elias – placing a significant four-year gap between the Peruvian Puma and the Raging Bull.

Why is this? The simple answer is that the current strength in depth at the top of the world rankings is immense. Many are now saying that we’re witnessing another ‘golden era’ of squash, with players such as Mohamed ElShorbagy, Ali Farag, Paul Coll, Karim Gawad and Tarek Momen leading the charge.

As time passes though, it’s inevitable that the next generation of squash players will make their way into the top rankings, and will one day dethrone the current top players.

So, the big question – who are the ones to watch? Well, allow me to do some quick maths to pull together the hot-list of players to keep an eye on.

First, the maths.

I wanted to create a table that predicts which players could find themselves in the top tier of squash over the next five years. To create the list, I pulled together a table of the current top 200 players in the world. By applying a formula that combines each player’s age and their current world ranking, with some weighting applied to the numbers, this calculates a ‘score’ for each player.

The formula, for those interested: (200 minus player’s ranking) x (30 minus player’s age).

The results

1-10: The youngest, most promising players

Table Rank	World Ranking	Player	Country	Birthplace	Age	Score
1	9	Mostafa Asal	EGY	Cairo	20	1910
2	17	Youssef Ibrahim	EGY	Cairo	22	1464
3	67	Moustafa El Sirty	EGY	Cairo	19	1463
4	74	Yahya Elnawasany	EGY	Tanta	19	1386
5	87	Sam Todd	ENG	Leeds	18	1356
6	33	Victor Crouin	FRA	Marseille	22	1336
7	52	Leonel Cardenas	MEX	Naucalpan	21	1332
8	18	Eain Yow Ng	MAS	Kuala Lumpur	23	1274
9	8	Diego Elias	PER	Lima	24	1152
10	20	Youssef Soliman	EGY	Cairo	24	1080

Unsurprisingly, Mostafa Asal sits comfortably atop the table. His high ranking of world #9, combined with his low age of just 20 puts him far ahead of everyone else. Fun fact – Asal is the fourth youngest player inside the top 150 – let that sink in.

Asal is followed by three young Egyptians – Youssef Ibrahim, Moustafa El Sirty and Yahya Elnawasany. The latter two players recently battled it out in the Heroes Graz Open, with El Sirty coming out on top.

The first non-Egyptian to hit the rankings is England’s Sam Todd, a Pontefract local who’s had an incredible junior career, and won his first ever PSA tournament in August.

Three current top 20 players also feature in this list’s top 10 – Eain Yow Ng, Diego Elias and Youssef Soliman. This tips them as potential players to top the world rankings in the very near future.

11-20: Ones to watch

Table rank	World rank	Player	Country	Birthplace	Age	Score
11	53	Benjamin Aubert	FRA	Amiens	23	1029
12	58	Sébastien Bonmalais	FRA	Saint-Pierre Reunion Island	23	994
13	41	Patrick Rooney	ENG	St Helens, Merseyside	24	954
14	105	Yannick Wilhelmi	SUI	Grabs, St Gallen	20	950
15	99	Nick Wall	ENG	Sheffield	21	909
16	100	Aly Hussein	EGY	Cairo	21	900
17	51	Dimitri Steinmann	SUI	Zurich	24	894
18	80	Spencer Lovejoy	USA	Connecticut	23	840
19	34	Iker Pajares Bernabeu	ESP	Barcelona	25	830
20	118	Viktor Byrtus	CZE	Trinec	20	820

Heading into the top 20, there’s a strong start for the French, with Benjamin Aubert and Sébastien Bonmalais (both aged 23) joining the higher ranked Victor Crouin.

Another English Pontefract player makes the rankings, with Pat Rooney coming in at #13. His recent accolades include reaching the third round of this year’s El Gouna, and defeating another fellow Pontefract player James Willstrop in the Manchester Open.

It’s an international affair as you head down the table, with players from Switzerland, Spain, England, Czech Republic and the USA all making an appearance in the top 20.

21-30: Strength in depth

Table rank	World rank	Player	Country	Birthplace	Age	Score
21	38	George Parker	ENG	Leicester	25	810
22	102	Lwamba Chileshe	NZL	Ndola, Zambia	22	784
23	70	Asim Khan	PAK	Lahore	24	780
24	7	Fares Dessouky	EGY	Alexandria	26	772
25	46	Tayyab Aslam	PAK	Lahore	25	770
26	47	Karim El Hammamy	EGY	Cairo	25	765
27	10	Joel Makin	WAL	Haverfordwest	26	760
28	116	Temwa Chileshe	NZL	Christchurch	21	756
29	21	Baptiste Masotti	FRA	Niort	26	716
30	59	Auguste Dussourd	FRA	Nogent-sur-Marne	25	705

The future looks bright for New Zealand, with brothers Lwamba and Temwa Chileshe taking the #22 & #28 spots. Both players currently sit just outside the world 100, however at just 22 and 21 years of age, the next few years could certainly see them climb the rankings and join fellow Kiwi Paul Coll.

Two current top 10 players also make an entry here, with Fares Dessouky and Joel Makin (both aged 26) coming in at #24 and #27. It’ll be very interesting to see how high they can climb in the world rankings – their current position on this table suggests there’s still plenty of time for them to make it to the top.

Interestingly, two players from Pakistan make an appearance here, with Asim Khan and Tayyab Aslam coming in at #23 and #25. Could this signal a potential return to squash greatness for the legendary Pakistani squash dynasty?

Time will tell

Ultimately, this list is just for a bit of fun. However, given the average age inside the world top 20 is 28 years old, it won’t be long before the next crop of players start to make their move on the pinnacles of the world squash rankings. It’s also highly likely there’s players among the junior rankings who’ll one day make a surprise entrance onto the PSA World Tour – none of which will appear on this list as they won’t have played in ranked tournaments (yet!).

There’s certainly an interesting few years ahead on the PSA, with players chomping at the bit to steal the limelight from the current top players. Who do you think has what it takes to dethrone the current golden generation? Be sure to leave a comment below.