Abdallah Eissa: "I believe I can become number one in the world"

The 16-year-old is studying for his GCSEs this summer as he tries to juggle a successful balance between high-level squash training and revising for his all-important exams. 

“I’m doing the compulsory subjects of Maths, Science and English and then also Geography, German, Graphics and PE - and I am also doing an extra module in Arabic,” said AbdAllah. “Hopefully I do well in them and then next year for A-Levels, I want to do Maths, Physics, Chemistry and Biology. 

“It can be quite difficult to be honest as I am spending most of the time training and revising. It is hard because I see my friends going out and having fun. The balance is hard to find but I know that in the long-term it will be rewarded. 

“After I finish my GCSE exams this year, I hope to start playing the smaller senior tournaments, playing with those senior players with the ambition of beating them. When I start winning Satellites, I’ll go to Challengers and then go to the World Series which is the biggest one. 

“I am interested in Medicine - that is something I would like to study. Hopefully I will go to university and when I finish university, carry on with my squash career and become professional.” 

AbdAllah’s career is supported by his dad, Ahmed, who is his main mentor and his coach. Ahmed has had a long-time passion for the sport, and AbdAllah believes this will work to his advantage in the long run. 

He said: “My dad is my coach. I think that it is an advantage and I think it’s really good because we have a close relationship which is open, and I am easily able to talk to him about the sport. He had been playing the sport since he was my age, so he started quite late and by the time he became good, it was too late for him to get to world level. 

“He just kind of wanted to pass it onto me and start teaching me early. When I was about five-years-old, I used to go and watch him on the court and I really enjoyed the sport. It’s also the same for my sister, she was inspired by me and started to pick up the racquet and play.” 

England has produced a number of successful squash players over the years, with the likes of James Willstrop, Laura Massaro and Nick Matthew all thriving on the world stage. 

Buoyed by his own early success, AbdAllah lofty ambitions for his own future in the sport. 

“I have won the Dutch Open, which was another international tournament and I won the British Junior Under-17s Nationals, and was a quarter-finalist in the British Under-23s Open in January this year,” he commented. “However, the highlight has to be winning the British Junior Under-13s Open, which was an international tournament. 

“It was a very close match and I was quite emotional towards the end of it. It was amazing to win because I had been playing since I was young and I had really been trying to become better and win a tournament. 

“It motivated me because it showed me that I was the best in the world for that age group and I thought to myself that this is the first step towards reaching world level. I believe that I can do it and eventually become number one in the world.” 

Commonwealth Games England has appointed SportsAid to lead on the development, management and operational delivery of Team England Futures at the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. The programme, supported by Sport England, will reinforce the importance of the Commonwealth Games, particularly one hosted on home soil, as a developmental opportunity within the talent and performance pathway! 

PHOTO CREDIT - STEVE CUBBINS (WITH THANKS TO ENGLAND SQUASH)