Racquetball is a racquet sport and a team sport played with a hollow rubber ball on an indoor or outdoor court. Joseph Sobek invented the modern sport of racquetball in 1950, adding a stringed racquet to paddleball in order to increase velocity and control. Unlike most racquet sports, such as tennis and badminton, there is no net to hit the ball over, and, unlike squash, no tin to hit the ball above. Also, the court's walls, floor, and ceiling are legal playing surfaces, with the exception of court-specific designated hinders being out-of-bounds. Racquetball is played between various players on a team who try to bounce the ball with the racquet onto the ground so it hits the wall, so that an opposing team’s player cannot bounce it back to the wall.
Squash, sometimes called squash rackets, is a racket-and-ball sport played by two (singles) or four players (doubles) in a four-walled court with a small, hollow, rubber ball. The players alternate in striking the ball with their rackets onto the playable surfaces of the four walls of the court. The objective of the game is to hit the ball in such a way that the opponent is not able to play a valid return. There are about 20 million people who play squash regularly world-wide in over 185 countries. The governing body of squash, the World Squash Federation (WSF), is recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and the sport will be included in the Olympic Games, starting with the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. The Professional Squash Association (PSA) organizes the pro tour.
A European Championship is the top level international sports competition between European athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs.
Heather Pamela McKay is an Australian retired squash player, who is considered by many to be the greatest female player in the history of the game. She dominated the women's squash game in the 1960s and 1970s, winning 16 consecutive British Open titles from 1962 to 1977, and capturing the inaugural women's World Open title in 1976, while remaining undefeated during that period. She was also a top-level player of other sports, including field hockey and racquetball.
Jahangir Khan is a former professional Pakistani squash player. He won the World Open title six times, and the British Open title ten times (1982–1991). Jahangir Khan is widely regarded as the greatest squash player of all time, and one of the greatest sportsmen in Pakistan history. From 1981 to 1986, Khan was unbeaten and during that time won 555 consecutive matches – the longest winning streak by any athlete in top-level professional sport as recorded by Guinness World Records.
James Bennett Elliott Ferrier was an Australian professional golfer. After compiling a fine record as an amateur golfer in Australia during the 1930s, he moved to the United States in 1940, turned professional in 1941, and joined the PGA Tour. He won the 1947 PGA Championship among his 18 tour titles and was the first Australian to win a major championship.
The British Open Squash Championships is the oldest tournament in the game of squash. It is widely considered to be one of the two most prestigious tournaments in the game, alongside the World Squash Championships.
Rodney Martin is an Australian former professional squash player, who is best known for winning the 1991 World Open and becoming the first player to defeat Jahangir Khan and Jansher Khan in the same event. After retiring as a player due to injury, he became a squash coach, working in Australia and the United States.
Rodney James Eyles is a former professional squash player from Australia. He is best remembered for winning the World Open title in 1997.
Abdelfattah Amr, better known as "F.D. Amr Bey" or simply "Amr Bey", was an Egyptian diplomat and squash player. He won the British Open men's title six consecutive times (1933–1938), and is considered the first truly dominant squash player in the sport.
Mahmoud el Karim (1916–1999) was a squash player from Egypt. He won the British Open men's title four consecutive times from 1947–1950.
Geoffrey Brian Hunt,, is a retired Australian squash player who is widely considered to be one of the greatest squash players in history.
Hashim Khan was a squash player from Pakistan. He won the British Open Squash Championships a total of seven times, from 1951 to 1956, and then again in 1958. Khan was the patriarch of the Khan squash family of Pakistan, which dominated the sport from the 1950s through the 1980s.
Nicholas MatthewOBE is a former English professional squash player who has won the two most prestigious tournaments in the professional game, the British Open and the World Open, three times each. He reached a career-high world ranking of World No. 1 in June 2010. His home club is Hallamshire Tennis and Squash Club in Sheffield which has named 'The Nick Matthew Showcourt' after him.
Cliff Swain is a professional racquetball player and coach from Boston, Massachusetts. Known for his dominant drive serve and on-court intensity, Swain finished as the #1 player on the International Racquetball Tour (IRT) six times -- in 1990, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1998, and 2002. He won US Open Championships in 1997 and 2001, and was inducted into the USA Racquetball Hall of Fame in 2003. A legendary figure in racquetball for over 3 decades, Swain still plays professionally and is quickly becoming a sought-after professional coach as well.
Wael Hatem El-Hendy is a professional squash player who represented Egypt. A Professional Squash Association (PSA) member since 1999, Wael El Hindi has long been regarded as one of Egypt's most talented players – first making his mark in the USA in 1998 when he reached the final of the World Junior Championship as a 5/8 seed. Steady progress on the Tour saw the 28-year-old from Giza – who currently divides his time between Egypt and England – reaching a career high ranking of World No. 8 in November 2008.
Squash is one of the most popular sports in Pakistan. Pakistan had hosted a number of international tournaments and has many professional training centers around the country. Pakistan reached its peak in the 1980s and 1990s during the reigns of Jahangir Khan and Jansher Khan. Both players won many laurels for the country. Jansher Khan won the World Open eight times and the British Open six times. He was ranked number 1 in the world for six years. Jahangir Khan is easily the greatest professional squash player of all time with an unofficial record of having 555-game winning streak. Between 1950 and 1997, Pakistan amassed over 30 British Open titles, 14 World Open titles and many more PSA professional titles.
Bud Muehleisen was an American dentist, racquetball and paddleball player from San Diego, California. A left-handed player, "Dr. Bud" Muehleisen part of the first class inducted into the Racquetball Hall of Fame in 1974, only a year after the Hall of Fame was established. He was also inducted into the World Outdoor Racquetball Hall of Fame in 2015. He is considered the best racquetball player and the best paddleball player of the 1960s era, and one of the best finesse players in the history of either game. The description of his career at the Racquetball Hall of Fame reads:
'Dr. Bud' Muehleisen has sometimes been called the most influential man in racquetball. He began playing paddleball in 1962, won four national titles, then took up paddle rackets in 1969, edging out Brumfield to win one of the first national championships in the sport that would become racquetball. Bud served on the IRA board of directors for seven years as the first Rules Committee chairman and was instrumental in the formation of the game's first rules. He won an unprecedented 41 national titles, was a coach and teacher, a regular contributor of instructional material to early magazines and worked with most of the major equipment manufacturers in developing racquets, balls and other products.
The Khan squash family, sometimes referred to as the Khan squash dynasty, refers to a Pakistani family that has produced a succession of champion squash players. The dynasty's patriarch was Hashim Khan (1914-2014), whose win at the 1951 British Open began the era of his family's dominance in the sport. This family dominance continues with Ivy League star Anoush Khan. Members of the Khan family have combined for a total of 23 British Open, 16 North American Open, 19 US Professional Championships, and six World Championships wins.
Thelma Carpenter was an English player of English billiards and snooker player. She won the World Ladies' Amateur Billiards Championship, now recognised as editions of the World Women's Billiards Championship, each year from 1932 to 1934. After turning professional in 1934, she won the Women's Professional Billiards Championship four times and the Women's Professional Snooker Championship once, retiring as the reigning champion of both in 1950.
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