British Open kings
Jonah Barrington and Jahangir Khan made squash famous while purses stayed tiny.
British Open prestige outran prize funds. Champions lived on exhibitions, club pro jobs and national pride more than tournament cheques.
Squash has always paid its champions less than their fame suggested. PSA prize money lagged tennis by an order of magnitude for decades; the real differentials came from national programs, Malaysian and Egyptian sponsors, and exhibition income. Comparing Jahangir Khan's 1980s dominance with Nour El Sherbini's modern PSA seasons only works in shared 2024 dollars.
Every player below is pinned to a documented peak year of total earnings: PSA prize money plus major endorsements and appearance fees reported for that season. Bars scale inside this list only.
Eras
Jansher tour years
A denser PSA calendar still could not mint tennis-scale seasons.
Jansher Khan's World Open pile coincided with slow purse growth. Squash remained a passion profession with occasional six-figure USD peaks for the absolute elite.
Nicol David Malaysia boom
Malaysian sponsors turned women's squash's GOAT into a national commercial face.
Nicol David's decade of World Opens unlocked home-market endorsements that finally pushed a squash champion toward serious six-figure territory once stacked with PSA money.
Egypt PSA rise
Egyptian stars and rising PSA prize funds lifted the modern ceiling.
Nour El Sherbini, Mohamed ElShorbagy and Ali Farag rode deeper Tour purses and Egyptian sponsors — still modest beside tennis, but the highest reliable squash pay yet.
Athletes
Jonah Barrington
British Open dominance peak: tiny purses plus exhibition living
Pay eras →
Jahangir Khan
Unbeaten stretch commercial peak: national hero income atop still-small purses
Pay eras →
Jansher Khan
Multiple World Open champion peak on a slowly rising PSA tour
Pay eras →
Peter Nicol
British world No. 1 peak as PSA purses slowly professionalised
Pay eras →
Nicol David
Women's GOAT commercial peak in Malaysia
Pay eras →
Mohamed ElShorbagy
Egyptian world No. 1 peak as PSA prize funds rose
Pay eras →
Nour El Sherbini
Women's World Champion commercial peak in the Egyptian era
Pay eras →
Ali Farag
Modern men's commercial ceiling: World titles plus PSA Tour leadership
Pay eras →
Methodology
Present value restates each peak year's USD total using US CPI-U annual averages rebased to 2024. Totals mean PSA prize money plus major endorsements, national support and exhibitions reported for that year. Figures are rounded estimates — squash's opaque commercial market requires honest hedging — not audited tax returns.