Google Doodle pays tribute Pakistan’s legendary squash player Hashim Khan

ISLAMABAD (92 News) – Google has paid a rich tribute to the legendary squash player Hashim Khan, dedicating its doodle to him. The Pakistan government had conferred Sitara-e-Imtiaz on him. He died in America in 2014. He won the British Open Squash Championships a total of seven times, from April 4, 1951 to 1956, and then again in 1958. He was the leader of the Khan squash family, which dominated the sport from the 1950s through the 1980s. Hashim Khan was born in Nawakille, a small village near Peshawar, in 1914. He was the second cousin of the two other leading Pakistani players of his time Roshan Khan and Nasrullah Khan, whose sons Rehmat Khan, Torsam Khan and Jahangir Khan are also squash players. In 1951, when Khan was in his 30s, the government of Pakistan – particularly the Pakistan Air Force – sponsored him for the British Squash Championship. It was the first time Hashim Khan wore shoes on the squash court. He travelled to the United Kingdom to play in the British Open, and won the title beating Mahmoud Karim in the final 9–5, 9–0, 9–0. He again beat Karim in the final in 1952 9–5, 9–7, 9–0. He won again for the next four consecutive years, beating RBR. Wilson of England in the 1953 final; his younger brother Azam Khan in two tight five-set finals in 1954 and 1955; and Roshan Khan in the final of 1956. Hashim Khan was runner-up to Roshan Khan in 1957, and won his seventh and final British Open title in 1958, when he beat Azam Khan in the final. Hashim Khan also won five British Professional Championship titles, three US Open titles, and three Canadian Open titles.