In my most recent article, I wrote about the upcoming Indian squash superstar, Anahat Singh, and it got me thinking more broadly about the other up-and-coming talent on the PSA Squash Tour.
It feels like we're seeing more and more glimpses into what the future is going to look like, with more and more young players starting to emerge and fly up the rankings.
With the end of the professional squash season fast approaching, I thought I'd focus on some of the top players to keep an eye out for next season.
One young Egyptian who looks destined to climb quickly through the rankings is Ruqayya Salem.
Still only 17 years old, Salem is already sitting at World No.62, which is seriously impressive considering how little professional squash she’s actually played so far.
What stands out immediately when looking at her PSA record is just how efficient she’s been. Across only 13 tournaments, she’s already won 37 of her 44 matches, reached 7 finals, and claimed 5 titles.
That level of consistency at such a young age usually tells you there’s something pretty special there.
A lot of people first started paying attention to Salem after she won the Dynam Cup SQ-Cube Open in her very first Challenger event back in 2024, something only a very small number of players have managed to do.
The PSA actually highlighted her as one of the young players to watch at the start of 2025, and since then, she’s continued to back that up with strong results, including winning the US Junior Open U17 title and recently beating another rising talent, Lauren Baltayan, in a tight five-game battle.
I'll actually be covering Lauren in this newsletter, too!
For me, though, one of the biggest indicators of Salem's level came recently against World No.1 Hania El Hammamy.
Very few players on the women’s tour are capable of taking a game off Hania when she’s playing well, especially younger players still trying to establish themselves, but Salem managed to do exactly that.
Even taking a single game off someone of El Hammamy’s quality is a massive statement and suggests Salem is already capable of competing physically and technically at a very high level.
By the time this newsletter goes out, she’ll also have faced Rachel Arnold in the first round of the British Open, which feels like another really important test in her development.
Regardless of the result, just getting opportunities to play matches of that level at 17 years old is hugely valuable.
She's definitely one of the names I'd be keeping a very close eye on next season.
Another Egyptian rapidly flying up the rankings is Nadien Elhammamy.
Born on 10 July 2007, the 18-year-old already sits at World No.38 (both current and best), underlining just how quickly she’s established herself on the PSA Tour.
Standing at 172cm, she brings a strong physical presence to the court, backed up by an increasingly proven record at the senior level: 28 tournaments played, 84 matches, 62 wins, 10 finals and 6 titles.
Her most recent statement result came at the Quilter Cheviot Cannon Kirk Irish Open, where she claimed the Copper title in Dublin.
In a high-quality all-Egyptian final against World No.16 Nada Abbas, Elhammamy showed real composure.
Racing into a 2-0 lead, weathering a comeback to 2-2, and then closing out the decider 11-8 to secure her fifth PSA title in just over a year.
It was the kind of win that reflects both tactical maturity and growing belief in tight situations.
That result was backed up by a strong overall run through the event, including dominant wins over Hana Ramadan and Zeina Mickawy in the latter stages.
She also arrives with a growing list of signature results elsewhere on tour, including a 3-2 win over Rachel Arnold at the World Championships, a significant marker given Arnold’s top 30 ranking, and a game taken off World No.6 Satomi Watanabe earlier in the season at the Steel City Open.
Looking ahead, she now faces Mariam Metwally in the British Open, another useful test against an established opponent and another opportunity to continue building momentum at the highest level.
At this stage, Elhammamy already looks like she belongs in the top-40 conversation, and if her recent trajectory continues, she could push much higher very quickly.
Another exciting young player with a very distinctive style is Lauren Baltayan.
Born on 5 May 2007 in Cairo, Egypt, Baltayan is one of the more unique cases on tour.
She holds dual nationality (French and Egyptian-Armenian heritage) and represents France internationally, while continuing to be based in Cairo, a setup that has clearly helped accelerate her development within the Egyptian squash ecosystem.
She currently sits at World No.48, with a career-high of the same ranking, standing 152cm tall with Tecnifibre as her racquet sponsor.
Across 35 tournaments, she’s built a strong early professional record: 95 matches played, 67 wins, 9 finals, and 6 titles.
For a player still so early in her career, that’s a substantial body of work, and it already points to a high-volume, high-intensity playing style that’s translating into results.
What really defines Baltayan’s game is the way she plays it. I'm sure I read somewhere that she'd been nicknamed the 'Pocket Rocket', she’s known for a relentlessly fast tempo and an unusually dive-heavy style of squash, throwing herself around the court to extend rallies and disrupt rhythm.
It’s an all-action approach that makes her matches particularly engaging, but also speaks to a fearless competitive mindset.
That identity was on full display at the CIB Palm Hills PSA World Championships, where she made an immediate impact on debut.
She claimed a strong upset win over World No.28 Lucy Turmel, taking it 12-10, 11-6, 11-13, 11-7 in a performance that showed both attacking intent and composure under pressure.
She then pushed World No.6 Satomi Watanabe in the next round, taking a game off of her in the process.
She also carries other strong results that reinforce her trajectory, including a tight five-game battle against World No.26 Malak Khafagy at the Hamburg Open, where she narrowly missed out but showed she can already stretch established top-30 opposition deep into matches.
Perhaps most notably, her win over Lucy Turmel and competitive showing against Watanabe came back-to-back at the World Championships, a clear sign that she is starting to translate her junior success into consistency at the senior level rather than just isolated results.
At this stage, Baltayan feels like one of those players who can trouble almost anyone on a given day, especially with her intensity and shot volume.
The next step will be turning those flashes into more sustained runs through events, but the foundation is already very clearly there.
Baltayan is also in the upcoming British Open, facing Malak Khafagy (World No.20) in her first match. It's a tough ask, but it will be a great test.
By the time you're reading this newsletter, you'll know how all three of these women's picks got on in their first round of the British Open!
One of the more established names in this group is World No.36 Sam Todd.
Born on 21 March 2003 in the United Kingdom, Todd is 23 years old.
Sponsored by Dunlop, Sam has built a solid and increasingly proven PSA record across a nine-year professional career: 61 tournaments, 165 matches, 112 wins, 19 finals and 8 titles.
He’s effectively transitioned from being an incredibly talented junior into a fully established Tour-level player, and is now starting to convert that experience into titles.
That progression was underlined recently with his victory at the Irish Open, where he captured a Copper title in Dublin.
In the final, he beat Japan’s Ryunosuke Tsukue in straight games, 11-8, 11-7, 11-6, a match where his steady pressure and control over the middle of the court proved too much for his opponent.
It was a controlled, professional performance that reflected a player increasingly comfortable closing out finals.
His route to that title was also notable, including strong wins over Rui Soares and Emyr Evans, both of whom are experienced, awkward opponents at this level.
Earlier in the season, he also pushed himself into contention at higher-tier events, taking a game off Fares Dessouky at the Hamburg Open and going even further by taking him to five at the Squash On Fire Open, the kind of result that shows he is not far off consistently challenging top-20 opposition.
He also took a game off Marwan ElShorbagy at the Motor City Open, and managed to take a game (and nearly a second) off World No.5 Youssef Ibrahim at the PSA World Championships.
That performance, in particular, stood out as a reminder of how close he is to breaking through that next competitive ceiling.
On a personal note, he’s one of those players you tend to notice growing up in the sport.
He’s about five years younger than me, and I remember seeing him as a very small junior at tournaments.
I watched him play in person at the recent senior inter-county finals, and seeing him now at 193cm with a commanding, physically dominant presence on court is a pretty striking transformation.
At this stage, Todd feels like he’s edging into that bracket where the results start to matter less than the pattern.
He’s taken games off top-20 players on a fair few occasions, winning titles at Challenger level, and beginning to look more comfortable controlling matches rather than just competing in them.
As a fellow English player, I'm really excited to see what Sam has in store next season.
One of the most compelling up-and-coming players to watch on SquashTV right now is Veer Chotrani.
Born on 25 October 2001 in India, Chotrani is currently World No.44, with a career-high of No.43. He stands 178cm tall and has built a strong body of work over 11 years on tour: 46 tournaments, 127 matches, 89 wins, 13 finals, and 8 titles.
What really stands out with Chotrani isn’t just the results, but the shape of those results.
He has developed a reputation as one of the more resilient and high-intensity competitors in this bracket of the rankings, a player who is frequently involved in long, momentum-heavy matches and who often finds ways to flip situations that look lost.
That was evident at the PSA World Championships, where he produced one of his standout performances of the season, coming back from 0–2 down to defeat World No.24 Abhay Singh in a five-game thriller.
What makes that win even more interesting is the context.
Earlier in the year, Singh had beaten him 3-0 in the final of the Indian Open, so this felt like a clear reversal of a one-sided result, and a sign of genuine in-match adaptation rather than a one-off upset.
That theme of tight margins and repeated five-set battles runs through his season.
At the Hamburg Open, he again went deep in a high-quality draw, beating Ivan Pérez in the opening round before narrowly losing out in another five-game match to an in-form Baptiste Masotti in the quarter-finals.
Earlier in the year, he had actually flipped that matchup, beating Masotti in a five-set second-round clash at the Squash On Fire Open, a nice example of how competitive and evenly matched he is with players around the top 20-25 mark.
He also pushed World No.6 Joel Makin all the way to a fifth game at the New Zealand Open, which again reinforces the same pattern: even when he doesn’t come through, he can stretch elite opposition deep into matches.
In terms of style, while he doesn’t fit into a single rigid category, what stands out most from watching him (and from how his matches tend to unfold) is the combination of high-tempo physicality and momentum swings.
He tends to thrive in matches where rhythm shifts quickly, where scrappy, extended rallies and emotional swings matter as much as pure structure.
That often makes his matches feel unpredictable, but also gives him a genuine chance against higher-ranked opponents who might prefer more controlled patterns.
There’s also a clear competitive edge in the way he responds to previous defeats.
The Abhay Singh reversal is a good example, but so is the Masotti split, losing a close one, then coming back later in the season to win an even tighter version of the same matchup.
At this stage of his career, Chotrani feels like a player who is right on the edge of converting these performances into more consistent runs.
The level is clearly there to trouble top-25 players; the next step is tightening those margins in consecutive matches rather than isolated breakthroughs.
One of the most eye-catching breakthrough moments of the past season is Adam Hawal.
Born on 1 August 2008 in Egypt, Hawal is still only 17 and already sits at World No.80. In just three years on tour, he has compiled 15 tournaments, 46 matches, 32 wins, 3 finals, and 1 title.
The moment that put him firmly on the map came at the CIB Egyptian Open, where, as a World No.252 wildcard, he produced one of the biggest upsets in modern squash by defeating World No.2 Paul Coll.
Coming through a chaotic four-game battle in front of a home crowd in Giza, Hawal held his nerve in a series of tight, momentum-shifting moments, saving multiple game balls and ultimately closing out an extraordinary win that immediately went viral across the sport.
That result didn’t come out of nowhere either. He had already beaten World No.26 Curtis Malik earlier in the event, showing that the Coll result was part of a broader surge rather than a one-off flash.
What stood out most in that run was his ability to raise intensity after a slow start.
Against Coll, for example, he was heavily outplayed in the opening game before completely changing the tempo and physicality of the match, something he’s already starting to build a reputation for at this early stage of his career.
Since then, he’s continued to show he can hang at a high level, narrowly losing a five-game thriller to World No.29 Noor Zaman at the PSA World Championships, another sign that he’s already competitive in matches against established top-30 opposition.
He now faces World No.33 Bernat Jaume in the opening round of the British Open, which feels like another really useful benchmark for where his game currently sits.
At this stage, Hawal is still early in his development and hasn’t yet had a long stretch of consistent matches against the very top end of the tour.
But the combination of explosive wins, fearlessness in big moments, and rapid improvements suggests he’s already one of the more dangerous young players coming through, especially in front of a home crowd or in high-energy environments where momentum swings quickly.
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