We begin with Egypt's Tarek Momen, the 2019 world champion, who retired from the PSA World Tour last June at the age of 37 after a stellar 20-year career at the pinnacle of the game.
1997: Gezira Sporting Club Junior Open U10 semi-final v Ramy Ashour, Cairo
As a kid, my parents forced me into playing squash. I didn't actually like it that much. Early on, I told my mum and dad that I didn't want to play any more. They said, 'You just need to experience the feeling of winning a match!' And that was exactly what happened.
I played my first tournament in the Gezira Club Junior Open when I was nine years old. From then on, my relationship with squash completely changed. It was my first major step that put me in the right direction.
I finished in third place. I played Omar Mosaad in the quarter-finals and lost to Ramy Ashour in the semis!
I won a prize and it was at my home club which was special. I thought to myself, 'I'm good at this!' I got more motivation to train. I still remember it quite vividly.
2012: British Open 1st round v Amr Shabana, London
Throughout my career I struggled with the idea of whether I should keep playing or stop. It's always been a curse.
I had graduated with highest honours with an engineering degree, and in Egyptian culture that is not something you should waste. I could have gone to work for any leading company. So when I graduated, I was conflicted about whether to continue with squash.
I played Amr Shabana in the first round of the British Open in 2012. I was aged 23. To my surprise I played very well that day and I was 2/1 up against him, but he managed to come back and win.
We were sharing a hotel room and and I told him my thoughts about not being happy about playing and said that maybe I should retire.
He said to me, 'What the hell are you thinking? Are you crazy? You are one of the very few players who have really bothered me on court. It would be such a shame that you would consider something like this.'
That gave me a massive boost going into summer training. It was one of the key moments of my career.
I started the next season by winning back-to-back titles at the Colombian and Malaysian Open, beating Miguel Angel Rodriguez and Mohamed ElShorbagy in the finals. Those two tournaments were also among the highlights of my career.
2016: Al-Ahram International quarter-final v Karim Gawad, Pyramids of Giza
This was one of my lowest points. I was 28 years old and had been in the top 10 for a while but hadn't been able to break above the top eight.
I had trained so hard in the summer, but to my utter disappointment, I went into the season and suffered the sort of fatigue that was unexplainable. I could only play for one game and couldn't push for the rest of the match.
At the Pyramids, Gawad beat me 3/0 so easily and I was shocked as I had put in so much work. That's when I had a drastic change in my whole schedule, my daily routine...I changed everything.
I had lost a lot of muscle mass. The fatigue was due to doing way too much work and not eating the right way. It took everything out of me. I was burnt out.
I partnered with fitness coach Samy Farrag who helped me recover from the fatigue issue and put me back on track. In a few months, I was 90% better. Without his guidance, I couldn't have figured out the problem. I'd have kept going on the same path. In a way, that match saved me.
March 2019: World Championships final v Ali Farag, Chicago
This was obviously the biggest match of my life up to this point, but my breakthrough actually began the year before. I had turned 30 and found a new level of maturity in my game that I'd never had before.
That year, I finally managed to break into the top four or five. I got into my first Platinum final in Qatar in 2017 and then made the Tournament of Champions final in 2018, beating Ali Farag in the semis. I started to taste getting into the latter rounds of tournaments a lot more.
Then I had this crazy run in late 2018 into 2019 [in which he finished as a semi-finalist, finalist or winner in 15 consecutive tournaments]. That was the best season of my career.
Getting to the World Championship final in Chicago in March 2019, I beat Mo [ElShorbagy] in the semis, the first time I'd beaten him in six years. That was a big breakthrough. Mo was always the problem for me. To do it in the semis of the Worlds was a big, big thing. I became world no.3 during that tournament, which was a big milestone. A key moment.
Losing that Worlds final against Ali Farag unexpectedy motivated me. The second I lost I thought it was going to crush me, because I had worked my whole life for that moment and it was gone in a second. It was a very close match but during the fourth when my legs couldn't push any more.
But a couple of hours later, I thought, 'You know what, I've had an incredible run. I've never been this consistent on tour. It could be the start of big things.'
Fast forward eight months...
November 2019: World Championships final v Paul Coll, Qatar
Obviously, beating Paul Coll in Qatar to win the world title was the biggest achievement of my career.
I had a crucial last-16 encounter against Abdulla Al-Tamimi where he was 2/1 and 6-2 up. I was almost on my way back home. I was fighting for my life. I saw my dream slipping away. I thought, 'You know what, I will die on court today before I hand victory to him.'
Thankfully somehow I managed to overturn it, and a few days later I was holding the trophy. This moment changed my entire career.
Up until this moment, I had this very bad feeling of knowing that I was a good player, that I was right there at the top and there wasn't a single player on tour that I hadn't beaten more than once, but still I had no big title. It was a burden I was carrying on my shoulder.
But when I won the World Championship, all that pressure was instantly removed. That was such a relief. I didn't need to worry any more about not winning any major trophies. I got the best one of them all.
Looking back, if I had lost that final against Paul and then had the long break with Covid, I would have found it extremely hard to come back and find motivation. It would have been like piling on more misery. My career would probably have ended there — and I would now be looking back at my career totally differently.
2022: World Championships quarter-final v Paul Coll, Cairo
After Covid, being an older player at that point, there are many matches that I'm really, really proud of. I was able to remain in the world top 10 until the age of 37.
In this match, at the age of 34, I feel I did incredibly well and pushed beyond my limits. We played for over two hours in hot, humid conditions on a court that suited his game style. With the warm conditions, the ball is not so easy to put away, and yet I stayed so solid with him.
I was 2/0 and 10-8 match ball down, but won the third 12-10, then the fourth 11-2. The match only ended at 11-9 in the fifth. He won it, but that was one of the matches I will never forget.
After Covid, I had a good five years of squash that would never have happened had I not won that world title in Qatar.
