Aifa ready to give full focus in bid to turn pro

KUALA LUMPUR: National squash player Aifa Azman (pic) is ready to take a giant step in her bid to turn professional.

The 17-year-old hopes to make her presence felt when she begins the New Year as a full-time trainee after completing her Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) this month.

She has shown plenty of talent throughout this year – even when she was juggling studies and sport.

She has taken part in several major events with Malaysian squash queen Nicol David and senior Low Wee Wern this year.

After winning the British Junior Open Under-17 title and four Professional Squash Association (PSA) titles at the Malaysian Tour from January to March, she found herself selected for the Commonwealth Games in April.

And together with Nicol, Wee Wern and S. Sivasangari, they went on to win the Asian Games team bronze in Indonesia in September.

“It was my first time competing in all these major tournaments and it felt good to be in the same team with Nicol, Wee Wern and Sivasangari,” said Aifa, a member of the team who finished sixth at the Women’s World Team Championships in China in September.

“I learned a lot from their discipline and mental toughness while travelling and playing with them.

“Nicol and Wee Wern gave me lots of support when I under-performed at the Commonwealth Games,” said the Under-19 Penang Junior Open champion.

Thanks to her steady form, the Perak Malaysian Games (Sukma) champion broke into the top-70 bracket in the world rankings and is currently placed at 68th spot.

“I didn’t expect to go up so high in the rankings because I didn’t have the chance to play in many PSA tournaments.

“It was difficult to focus both on my studies and sport but now that I’ll be going full time, I hope to progress and improve much more as a player.”

And her immediate focus is to win her fourth British Junior Open title from Jan 2-6 in Birmingham, England.

“I’ve been trying hard to get back after stopping for a month due to the SPM, and I’m ready,” added Aifa, who previously won the Under-13 (2014), Under-15 (2016) and Under-17 (2018) in the British Juniors.