BY ROD GILMOUR



Diego Elias has been hailed by former greats as the next Jansher Khan. But only now has the Peruvian realised that to be marked in the same category as a champion, he has to respond like one.

So, beneath the buzzing stands of the Tournament of the Champions in New York, the 20-year-old rising star of squash is outlining his bid to make further inroads into the top echelons of the sport.

Out will go the party lifestyle that the former World, British and US junior champion relishes away from the court. Instead, Elias will eye life on the world tour with fresh perspective.

“I like it but I am trying to stop doing that,” he says of his penchant for nightlife. “I am not going to do that anymore. I am going to stop as I have been relaxing too much. I’ve had a lot of fun last year but I want to concentrate on squash, have more discipline.

“They used to tell me that I could be a Jansher, but I’ve been getting tired on the court and I want to stop doing stupid things, go up in the rankings now and enjoy the sport again.”

That he is even here revealing his intentions to Squash Player is remarkable enough.

Over a decade before he first came to prominence at the 2013 British Junior Open, Elias was playing in the park by his uncle’s house in Lima.

Close by, on the other side of the park, he heard gun shots. A robbery was taking place. The then seven-year-old started to run away and back to his uncle’s residence.

The following day he woke up in hospital with no immediate recollection of what happened next. He had been hit at full speed by a police car pursuing the robbers. “I flew metres and fell on my head,” he recalls. “I lost one shoe like in the movies and I was in hospital for more than a week.”

Elias can today see the funny side of the near fatal episode. Yet we might not even be here discussing his rapid rise on the PSA World Tour but for his lucky escape.

The rise has been seismic. In 2013, he won the British Junior Open under-17 title as a lower-ranked seed. There were tears as his father and coach, Jose Manuel, came on court with the Peruvian flag.

Elias says: “We were so happy. We had calls from family and the guys who first started sponsoring me when I started going to tournaments.

“I don’t think anyone thought I would win. I beat the no.1 seed in the quarters and won every match 3-2. It was a great feeling and after that I started training even harder.”

His last two years of school were subsequently finished online – “I have never been a bad boy or anything like that,” he states. “I got all the right grades in school” - and his tour breakthrough came shortly afterwards.

It arrived in June 2014 when the wildcard became the first Peruvian to win a PSA title at the Regatas Resistencia Open in Argentina. The following day he reached the world’s top 100 and he won his first World Junior Championship three months later. A second duly came as Elias became only the fourth player in history to win the title twice after Egyptian trio Ramy Ashour, Mohammed and Marwan Elshorbagy.

In the last 18 months as a senior, he has played all the big tournaments and in December reached a career high world no.23. At January’s Tournament of Champions he got into the main draw for the first time without needing to qualify and found himself up against eventual finalist Gregory Gaultier.

“Playing around the 20s, Greg is the worst player you can get,” he says. “He kills players with a lower level. I experienced that and I felt it. It wasn’t good being on court with him!”

It was perhaps his most trying hour on court ever since he first held a racket as a three-year-old in Lima.

He has been around courts ever since, be it tennis or squash at Lima’s Club Terrazas Miraflores. Elias lives close by and stays with either his mother or father in their separate apartments in the city. When he’s back home, he will train in the morning, head to the beach in the afternoon and delve into more training in early evening. Life is good, reflecting Elias’ relaxed demeanour.

His obvious hand-eye coordination stems from holding a racket so early in his life. Later, aged 13, Elias played in an under-15 South American tournament and lost in the semi-finals. His anger at losing out on the trophy left him with enough energy to discard tennis and pursue squash.

A year on, Elias met Jonathan Power, Canada’s former world champion, for the first time. Elias had a friend in Toronto who contacted him to come over and train in Toronto. The pair became instant friends. He soon travelled to Canada more often and Power has been mentoring him, on and off, ever since. “He has helped me a lot in my career,” he says. “We understand each other well. He just likes how I am and knows what to tell me.”

This year, as Elias moves towards the world’s top 20, he will be further aided by the Peruvian government as Lima is hosting the 2019 Pan American Games. He will be one of the faces of the two-week jamboree.

Two years ago, he won the under-23 sportsman of the year in Peru. His recognition gave him public profile then, but the 2019 Pan Am Games will propel him even further.

Elias calls the Games “the biggest event after the Olympics” as far as The Americas is concerned. Two years ago he lost to Colombian rival Miguel Angel Rodriquez in the men’s singles final and is setting his sights on gold in 2019. “It was a big thing to get silver then,” he says. “It was the first medal of those Games for Peru too so it was special.”

Squash might well receive top billing then. However the sport currently falls below football, volleyball, motor racing and even the popular pastime of cockfighting when it comes to Peruvian sporting passions.

His family once bred their own roosters several years ago, but while the sport has been criticised for its cruelty – some arena fights see knife blades attached to the cock’s left leg – it remains near-religion in Lima. “Not everyone likes it,” he says of the six-hour fiestas. “But me and dad always go to them.”

From British junior success on the Abbeydale Courts to arena cockfighting, father and son have a clear bond. Jose Manuel knows his boy has talent. And so do former champions of the sport.

It was Geoff Hunt who first associated Elias with Jansher, while Power has even called Elias a cross between Jansher and Lee Beachill. Elias says: “It’s a good combination of players. If I hear that, people may respect me. I am just trying to do my best and see where I can get to.

“I’ve always known that I could be in the top 10. But perhaps I have relaxed too much in the last few years knowing that.”