The greatest player in the history of squash came to Weybridge this week, writes Greg Rhodes.

Jahangir Khan visited St George’s Hill Lawn Tennis Club as the club hosted the qualifying rounds for the World Open and the Kuwait Open.

Khan, recently retired chairman of the World Squash Federation, oversaw qualifying on behalf of the Kuwait Squash Association.

He was impressed with the club’s all glass court recently unveiled at The Nine Telecom Legends of Squash inaugural event.

“This is a fantastic facility for squash at one of the best clubs I have visited,” said the legend Khan.

“It is a great honour to see Jahangir at St George’s Hill,” said Danny Lee, the club’s squash manager.

“Many would say he is the greatest squash player of all time and he was unbeatable for much of his career.”

Between August 1981 and November 1986, Khan never lost a match at any level of competition and only dropped eight sets in that time – one of those to Lee.

“It was during the Spanish Open in Madrid in February 1986. I took the set 9-8 but lost the match, needless to say,” added Lee.

“I was in the world’s top 30 then and Jahangir suffered one of those rare blips in his otherwise faultless record. That was my 15 minutes of fame.”

Khan, 46, watched Lee’s 20 year-old son Joe qualify for the World Open.

”He was impressed and thought that Joe had potential to move up the rankings,” Lee added.

“Dad no good so how can boy be good?“ Khan jested before Joe’s match. However, after the match he added: “I very wrong. Boy is very good.”

St George’s Hill’s top player, Tom Richards, ranked 32 in the world, qualified automatically for the World Open as one of the top 47.

Danny added: “Jahangir’s record is awesome and is one of the best in any sport. Let’s hope that a British player – one brought through the squash academy at St George’s Hill - can emulate it one day.”

Club website: stghltc.co.uk