Ross Norman, Hiddy Jahan, Maqsood Ahmed, Adrian Davies & Danny Lee explain why Jahangir Khan is the world’s greatest ever player

February 01 2017

Ross Norman, Hiddy Jahan, Maqsood Ahmed & Danny Lee explain why Jahangir Khan universally recognised as the world’s greatest squash ever player & an athlete who transcended his sport to be acknowledged as world’s greatest ever sportsman.

“When you turned up at a tournament & went along to the court for a practice hit, you always knew if Jahangir was on court. You could tell if it was him, just by the sound of the ball being hammered against the front wall. Jahangir hit the ball harder than anyone else & it was relentless. You saw him doing it in practice & it was just the same in matches."
Ross Norman, 1986 World Squash Champion

“At his first British Open in 1980 Jahangir reached the third round where he was beaten by Jonah Barrington. After that, he got stronger & stronger. To be honest with you, he just worked bloody hard. He had a mission. At the time we all laughed that he was married to squash. It's all he saw in life. It was only later that he saw the light on the other side."
Hiddy Jahan was a leading player on the Professional Squash Association (PSA) World Tour from 1970 to 1986 & a close friend of Torsam Khan, the older brother of Jahangir Khan
Hiddy played an important role in helping to groom the young Jahangir Khan, who went on to become the dominant player in the game in the 1980s.
Hiddy Jahan was runner-up to Jahangir Khan at the British Open in 1982

"I won the world amateur in 1977 in Toronto & Jahangir won the world amateur in Australia in 1979. And yes, he was a very hard worker. Mostly we trained together in England & Pakistan & I could see him improving all the time. After seeing his hard work, we all knew that this boy would definitively become a world champion. I have seen many of the best players like Geoff Hunt, Qamar Zaman & Jansher Khan who all had different styles & different techniques, but Jahangir was too quick for them all on the court. He played with a strong mind & enormous stamina.
Maqsood Ahmed, who in 1977 became the first player to win the Pakistani Amateur & Open titles in the same year & retained a world top ten ranking for over decade

"Wherever you went to a tournament, you were at the same hotel, buses and practice courts. But Jahangir's exterior was that no one crossed the divide into his inner circle, except the chosen few and his fellow Pakistani players who he respected. You never saw him in hotel lobbies or anywhere where he was accessible. That created a phenomenal anti-Jahangir character. He kept himself to himself, more so than any other player, from the Westerners. That was quickly demolished after a few seasons, when they respectfully understood how good this guy was."
Former Welsh No.1 Adrian Davies, nicknamed the ‘Wizard', has been a close friend of the great Jahangir Khan since the early eighties when they would compete against each other on the Professional Squash Association (PSA) World Tour

“Sometimes Jahangir had a laugh by keeping players on court for so long. I don't think he ever did it on purpose, but in some ways he was actually ending their careers in the process because mentally they couldn't get their heads around the fact that they were thinking they were going to be the new Jonah Barrington & reach the summit. But once they endured that amount of pressure & pain for an hour, they struggled to do it again."
Danny Lee, former PSA World Tour player

Quotes courtesy of 555: The Untold Story Behind Squash's Invincible Champion & Sport’s Greatest Unbeaten Run

Inspired by Jahangir Khan, UNSQUASHABLE is committed to developing equipment that is used by the world’s leading players because UNSQUASHABLE believe that engineering equipment for professional competition makes for a better product for the everyday player.