by James Zug
One of the most talented, successful and famously peripatetic professional players in U.S. squash history, Chris Gordon has announced his retirement. Fittingly, his last tournament was an event earlier this month in Astana, Kazakhstan—underscoring the breadth of his remarkable career.
Gordon was a pioneer for U.S. squash. A junior prodigy (he won the U15s in 2001 and the U19s in 2004 and 2005), Gordon was the first American to entirely forgo a collegiate squash career and go straight to the professional tour. In fact, he even abbreviated his high school years. When he was thirteen, he moved to England to train as a pro. He lived in Harrogate, working with coach David Pearson and finishing high school online. When he was twenty, he returned to be based in New York. He later attended and graduated from the University of Oklahoma online.
The six foot three star played in his first pro event in 2002 and his last in 2026—an unprecedented twenty-four-year run. The statistic that defines his career is that Gordon officially played in 332 PSA events, the most in history (the ageless Rachael Grinham is next at 330).
One of the leading Americans for nearly all of this millennia, Gordon played for Team USA in the quadrennial Pan American Games in 2007 in Rio, 2011 in Guadalajara and in 2015 in Toronto, earning four medals overall (two bronze in 2011 and two silver in 2015). He played in a dozen Pan American Championships, the Pan Am Federation’s annual match. In a historic run, Gordon donned a Team USA shirt in the men’s World Team Championships six times: In Islamabad in 2005, in Chennai in 2007, in Odense in 2009, Paderborn in 2011 (where the U.S. had its best finish ever at six), Mulhouse in 2013 and Washington in 2019.
Individually, Gordon captured the National Singles title in 2013 without the loss of a game. He reached world No. 44 in May 2013. He stayed ranked in the top hundred for 173 consecutive months, a stunning example of his consistency. He had numerous signature wins. Perhaps the most memorable was the opening round of the 2012 U.S. Open in Philadelphia when he topped Hisham Ashour, then a top ten player, 11-6 in the fifth. He also had two epic matches against world champion Tarek Momen, both in Richmond: in 2007 he lost to Momen 11-9 in the fifth, and in 2013 they had an eighty-five-minute, match-ball saving battle that Momen survived 11-9, 11-7, 10-12, 19-21, 11-5.
The word journeyman might have a negative connotation to some, but for Gordon it aptly sums up a player who went on more journeys than any other in U.S. pro squash history. In his career, he clocked in a couple of million air miles.
He played in pro tournaments in twenty American states: CA, CT, FL, GA, IL, MA, MD, MI, MN, NY, NV, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, TX, UT, VA and WA. He played in seven Canadian provinces: Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec and Saskatchewan.
He played in forty-two nations: Argentina, Australia, Barbados, Bermuda, Brazil, British Virgin Islands, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, England, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Macau, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Paraguay, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Qatar, Scotland, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Turkey, United States and Uzbekistan. Some tournaments were just one-offs, but some were regular—Gordon played in Brazil fourteen times. He captured six PSA titles in five countries: British Virgin Islands, Canada, El Salvador, Japan and twice on home soil.
As he heads into retirement, Gordon is still a regular commentator for SquashTV and a mentor for Team USA: in the past two years he has coached at the World Juniors, the Pan Am Juniors and the Pan Am Championships. He is now offering insights about top-level squash that he knows perhaps better than any player in history.
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