Pakistani Squash Star Noor Zaman Achieves Career-Best World Ranking

Pakistan’s Noor Zaman has broken into the Top 30 of the Professional Squash Association (PSA) world rankings, reaching a career-best world number 30.

The 21-year-old previously held a career-high ranking of 37 as of October 27, following a series of strong international performances. His rise comes after a notable showing at last week’s Karachi Open, where all six Pakistani participants improved their PSA rankings. Noor pushed former world champion Mohamed Elshorbagy to a tight five-game quarterfinal, narrowly losing 3-2 with a scoreline of 11-2, 11-8, 6-11, 8-11, 11-9.

Noor, who won the U23 world title at the same venue last year, has earned a reputation for resilience, particularly in long, five-game matches. Pakistan’s other top-ranked players also made gains: Ashab Irfan moved up two places to a career-best world number 45, veteran Nasir Iqbal jumped 35 spots to world number 99, and Tayyab Aslam climbed 50 positions to reach world number 149.

On the women’s side, Sana Bahadar and Mariam Malik achieved career-high rankings despite first-round exits. Sana entered the Top 200 for the first time, rising to world number 197, while Mariam improved to world number 214 from 248.