Female Saudi squash ace ‘overwhelmed’ after big Riyadh event

LONDON: The trailblazing Nada Abo Alnaja said she was “truly overwhelmed” after becoming the first Saudi Arabian woman to compete in the Professional Squash Association (PSA) World Tour.

Alnaja, a wildcard for the event in Riyadh, was pitched against world No. 3 Camille Serme, who reached the semifinals of last month’s PSA Women’s World Championship, in round one and although she lost in straights, the appearance in the first-ever women’s professional squash tournament to be held in Saudi Arabia will live long in the memory.

“Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined I would one day stand here, in front of a Saudi crowd, playing Camille, in front of Nour (El-Sherbini) and all the top players,” Alnaja told the PSA website. “I’m truly overwhelmed, I don’t realize I think what just happened, and it will take some time to sink in … I enjoyed every minute of this match, I just hope I can get better, but I couldn’t hope for a better match. I want to thank Camille for allowing me to play, I know she was very nice to me today.”

Serme, the No 2 seed for the $165,000 event, was thrilled to be part of history at the Princess Nora bint Abdul Rahman University in Riyadh.

“It’s such an honor to play against the first-ever (female) Saudi player and to live through that historical moment,” said Serme. “I hope she is going to keep on playing and make more and more tournaments.”

Saudi Arabian businessman Ziad Al-Turki is the chairman of the Professional Squash Association, and he felt Alnaja’s participation represented a landmark day for the sport and the Kingdom.

“So proud of Nada Aboalnaja today,” he tweeted. “Her 1st ever #psaworldtour match, with so much riding on her shoulders. KSA pride!”

Her appearance at the PSA event is the culmination of years of hard work for Aboalnaja. The 32-year-old trains once, sometimes twice, a day and is continually fine tuning her game under the guidance of French coach Fabien Polly after initially teaching herself how to play.

“I started to play squash and I realize that it was a great way to get fit, but also it gave me the motivation I needed in the gym,” Alnaja said. “I just couldn’t go and do exercises: I needed a reason to go to the gym. Squash gave me that goal, that motivation.”

Alnaja hopes the staging of the maiden ranking event in Riyadh helps to raise the profile of the sport in the Kingdom and leads to a raising of standards and the breaking down of barriers.

“Playing squash in Saudi for a woman is a bit challenging, we have a long way to go to take Saudia Arabia to the next level,” she said. “We need to bring in here the expertise from abroad, we need coaches, we need clubs, we need courts. But you know, when I was hitting the ball for hours in my club in Jeddah, looking like a crazy woman, never would I have imagined where it would take me. So the lesson is: Ladies, whatever it is, if you love something, whatever activity, make-up, clothes, if you love it enough, just do it, just put all your energy in it, because you never know where it may take you.”