Ali Farag announces retirement

EGYPT: Egypt’s four-time World Squash Team Champion and former World No.1 Ali Farag has announced his immediate retirement from professional squash.

Farag, ranked at No.2 in the PSA World Rankings upon his retirement, is one of the sport’s greatest ever players, winning the World Squash Team Championships on four occasions (2017, 2019, 2023, 2024) as well as four PSA World Championship titles (2019, 2021, 2022, 2023).

His retirement comes five months after clinching helping Egypt clinch a sixth World Squash Team Championship title after a dramatic battle with Mohamed ElShorbagy at Hong Kong Football Club, and two weeks after winning a silver medal at the PSA World Championships in Chicago.

Harvard-graduate Farag spent 238 weeks at World No.1 between March 2019 – March 2025 and won 46 PSA Squash Tour titles throughout his illustrious career, which puts him sixth on the all-time men’s winners list.

Farag’s first major title came at the 2017 U.S. Open final, which he memorably won the same night that his wife, Nour El Tayeb, captured the women’s title as they became the first married couple to win the same major sports title on the same day.

They would repeat that trick at the 2023 Manchester Open, this time accompanied at the trophy ceremony by their daughter, Farida, who was born less than a fortnight before Farag’s second World Championship triumph.

That U.S. Open win was just the beginning for Farag, who has since gone on to win the PSA Squash Tour Finals (2024) British Open (2023), the CIB Egyptian Open three times (2020, 2021, 2022), the J.P. Morgan Tournament of Champions four times (2019, 2022, 2024, 2025), the Qatar Classic three times (2018, 2020, 2023), the El Gouna International three times (2019, 2023, 2024), the Windy City Open twice (2020 and 2024) and the Paris Squash (2023) in addition to two further U.S. Open titles.

Since making his PSA debut in 2005, Farag played in 81 PSA finals, with a 57 per cent win rate, while he won 445 of his 553 matches on the PSA Squash Tour. He is the fifth longest-serving men’s World No.1 after Jahangir Khan, Jansher Khan, Peter Nicol and Geoff Hunt.

Farag was also popular amongst his fellow players, who voted for him to win the PSA Spirit of Squash Award seven times over the past eight years. Farag was a vital part of the Egypt squad that captured a historic double at the 2024 World Squash Team Championships

“I always knew this day would come and I knew it would be very emotional. And it is, but in a good way,” Farag said. “It’s been a long time coming. Ever since Covid, really. When I’d achieved all my goals, I always thought ‘What’s next for me?’

“Squash been my passion, my identity and my purpose for as long as I can remember, but there was always another part of me, a family man. Now, I’m a husband and a father to two beautiful young girls, one about to turn four and the other born three months ago. I’ve missed so many of the milestones that I wanted to be there for: the school pickups, the late-night cuddles, the bedtime stories. All of those things that pass too quickly when you’re always chasing the next flight, the next match, the next tournament.

“I’ve always believed in balance, and I feel like the balance has shifted now. This is what I want the next chapter to be. “I’m walking away at the perfect time. Squash is in a place it has never been and the level is higher than ever. Even if I’m not playing, you can count on me always being there as a fan, a supporter and someone who will always love this game.”