Diego Elías: “My goal is to be ten more years in the top positions”

Each answer has a nervous smile. She knows she’s number one, but even he has a hard time believing it. Diego Elías leads the PSA (Professional Squash Association) world squash ranking despite losing in the quarterfinals of the Squash World Cup. The results he needed to continue at the top were given.

The Peruvian stayed for the fifth time in the quarterfinals, but the defeats of Mostafa Asal and Mohamed ElShorbagy in the semifinals allow him to continue at the top of the ranking. This is the elite, week after week they demand you not to fail and Diego Elías wants to fight in the top positions for another decade.

You are still number one in the squash ranking. What makes you feel that you have reached the top?

It’s a dream come true to be number one after training so long and with a lot of sacrifices. Is incredible. The first few days I didn’t believe it.

Congratulations from all over the world…

There was never a number one in South America. People couldn’t believe it. All the squash in South America have written, they have congratulated me. It is beautiful and rare at the same time that other countries are just as happy.

Was it as or more incredible than what you experienced when you won the British Open Juniors?

It was so unexpected what happened in the Juniors. I was an underdog and beat all the top seeded Egyptians, no one knows me. After ten years to be number one is incredible. It’s something crazy.

At what point did you realize that you could get there?

I always believed that I could get there, but it was not easy. I was in the top eight for quite some time for a couple of years. Two years ago I entered the top five and there I saw closer to being able to reach one.

Did the injury two years ago make you doubt?

It was a very difficult moment. Just two years ago, at the beginning of 2021, I was injured and was without playing until July. After that six-month break and after a year and a half reaching number one is incredible. When I was injured I didn’t even know how good I was going to be to be able to play at the top. It was not known and now I feel super good, I don’t feel anything from the injury.

What made you think that moment?

It was something that made me realize that, it’s not that I’m old, but an injury makes you realize that sport is not for life and you have to take advantage of those years in which you can get more juice out of it.

How to reach the elite from a country like Peru without so much support for high performance sports, except squash?

Since I was a kid, some friends of my dad’s helped me, when I started competing in the international Juniors. Without that help, everything would have been more complicated to start my career.

And add that your career was always on the rise

It helped a lot that I had results in Juniors and in professional I had quick victories. I made the top 100 my first year and the top 50 my second. That helped, but not everything was up. Injuries stopped me, but in general every year I did well.

You always focused on being professional, you were determined to that

When I was a junior I already had in mind to play as a professional. I had my dad next to me helping me to have my feet on the ground. He was always guiding me well and that helped me a lot.

How do you carry a career hand in hand with your father? They are two different relationships, that of dad and coach

I’m super friends. Travel with me and we are together. We are very close. De Chico always treated me the same as the other boys he trained. Then I started winning tournaments and training harder. He never had such mercy. Now he is the happiest.

Was he more demanding than usual?

He never forced me to do this sport, but when he saw that I had a knack for squash, with some good results, he gave me the option. He told me that it was time to choose whether he dedicated me to sports or to a normal life, studying. He gave me the option and made me realize that he had the option to become a professional in squash if he proposed it to me.

That’s why you had to leave the country. Would it have been impossible to ascend if you stayed in Peru?

It’s hard. Without having results, if you start from scratch. It is a big budget to travel and if there is no help, it is complicated, especially from Peru where you have to travel all the time to play tournaments, improve.

Think about that and now be number one in the world

It’s something I still don’t realize. I think about it and I get excited. Having the whole squash world behind me, being an example is a bit of a responsibility. I always try to do my best to be a good example, a person the kids can learn from. Hopefully I can continue on this path and stay in one for a long time.

Lots of pressure too?

The last few months have been quite difficult knowing that I was one or two games away from being number one and losing. Mentally it puts you down a lot, but now becoming the one has relaxed me and makes me play calmer. I want to keep the one so I’ll try to win.

And it adds to work with people like Power and Gaultier

Since I was a kid I’ve known Jonathon Power, who is a former number one. From the age of 13-14 I went to Canada to train with him and he began to help me. He is very close friends with Gregory Gaultier, also a former number one, and that was the easiest connection, because Gaultier was still playing when I started. Now they are always supporting me. It’s great to have two former number ones sitting in your corner. I have my dad and I also train with the Egyptian Wael El Hindy, former 8 in the world. Having all of them in the tournaments makes an incredible difference, it gives you another confidence, an extra to win.

You are one of the faces of Peruvian sports, like Kimberly García and Juan Pablo Varillas, who are among the elite of their disciplines

It’s super amazing. I follow the careers of Kimberly García and the games of Juan Pablo Varillas. It fills me with pride to see them competing with the best and winning. Being able to represent Peru is something incredible, it’s cool and a responsibility too, that’s why I always do my best everywhere to leave Peru’s name high.

That is why national team tournaments are so emotional

They are always incredible, the Odesur, the Pan American Games. They are one of the most beautiful parts of the sport. This year they are in Santiago and we are going to Cartagena in June to play the team qualifier. Hopefully we will qualify and the whole team can go to Santiago to win some medals.

How do you see squash in Peru?

I feel like it’s growing, more than anything up north. In Trujillo they have made more courts and there are plenty of juniors playing. In Piura there are also many children playing. In Lima there are more clubs with academies or schools, this is great. The fields that are in Villa El Salvador are good for people to have access to. Hopefully more people can pull and everything can continue to grow.

Have you had contact with the new Peruvian athletes?

Unfortunately lately I haven’t been there for more than two or three days and I’m only going to see my family. When the season is over I want to go and spend a couple of weeks there and get to know the courts, meet the new guys and try to motivate them to keep playing and promote the sport.

You had to celebrate number one in a peculiar way, while in full training

It was quite difficult to continue playing the rest of the championship. I was in the second round and they gave me the news. I still have to play all the British. It was very hard to play after knowing that you are going to be the one. Fortunately I was focused and reached the final.

What causes you that in some cases the fact of having a world number one is not valued?

I have always been a person with a low profile and it does not bother me at all that I am not well known. Obviously I want and hopefully squash becomes more known and that people can follow it closely, but for myself it doesn’t bother me how everything has been in my career.

How much longer do you see yourself fighting among the best in the world?

For the next five and hopefully ten years I will be focused on my career and then when I return to Peru, when I retire, trying to make squash grow much more in Peru and in all of South America.

Ten years in the top positions?

Hopefully about ten. If all goes well, reach 37-38 years. More than ten, but you never know. I hope it continues like this. The whole sport has changed, you see much bigger players who are at the top and that is my goal, to try to be at the top until I no longer have the body. Hopefully it’s another ten years.

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