Latasha Khan will be inducted into the United States Squash Hall of Fame on Saturday, October 26, 2024. The ceremony will happen at a special luncheon preceding the finals of the 2024 U.S. Open at the Peggy & Leo Pierce U.S. Squash Hall of Fame at the Arlen Specter US Squash Center in Philadelphia. Hall of Fame Induction ceremony registration is available here.
Latasha Khan was one of the most dominant players in U.S. squash history. A Seattle native and daughter of legendary Indian national champion and coach Yusuf Khan, Latasha Khan was both a precocious player and decades later a wily veteran. She showed early promise: she won the Girls Under 17 national title in 1989 in both hardball and softball and the Girls Under 19 in 1990 and 1991 in softball.
She captured the National Singles seven times, in 1998, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006. Over a twenty-year period, she also lost in the finals seven times, including once to her older sister Shabana Khan in a five-game battle. Khan joined the world tour full-time in the summer of 1997 after graduating from the University of Washington (she earned her first tour ranking in 1993). She didn’t leave the tour until the fall of 2015. (And she then made one benedictory appearance in the fall of 2017.) From 1997 to 2015 meant an extraordinary, unbroken stretch that is unprecedented in U.S. women’s squash history.
Over those eighteen years, she played in 248 pro tour events, the most ever for an American woman. She was extremely peripatetic—in 2004, for example, she entered eighteen events, plus the World Teams and the World Doubles, visiting twelve countries. She battled injuries including chronic Achilles tendinitis and back issues, but was determined, resilient and healthy-enough to play in a minimum of at least ten events every year from 2000 until her retirement.
Khan played an attacking, all-court game, using both finesse and a lot of precise power to push her to victory. She won ten pro titles. She recorded wins over exceptional players like Kasey Brown, Vicky Botwright, Tesni Evans, Sarah-Jane Perry and Nour El Tayeb. She stayed in the top forty for over sixteen years and reached world No.18. Khan was on Team USA at the World Teams in 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2010. She won a total of two golds and a silver at the Pan Am Games in 2003 and 2007.
Off the court, Khan was an inspired leader for professional squash. She was chair of the women’s pro tour and helped lead the women’s tour to an historic merger with the men’s tour in 2015, a first for a major professional sport. Throughout her career and after retirement, Khan has been an avid teaching pro in Seattle. She also has been a leading doubles player. Her career in doubles began at age nine when she and her father won the club championship at the Seattle Racquets Club. Since then she has excelled at both women’s and mixed doubles.
“Fierce on the court, and kind off the court, Latasha established herself as the dominant force in U.S. women’s squash for much of the 2000’s and represented Team USA four times in that decade,” said Kevin Klipstein, US Squash President & CEO. “Her incredible longevity at such a high level is a testament to her commitment and dedication to her craft.”
