27-year-old Peruvian Diego Elias is the current squash world champion. In Cairo, Egypt, in May 2024, this young athlete won the CIB PSA World Championship for the 2023-24 season. Despite coming from a country with a small squash scene, Elias has defied the odds to become one of the best squash players in the world.
He is not only the first person from his native country of Peru to become world champion, he is the first man from any South American country to ever achieve this feat. And he is only the second squash player in history from all of the Americas. One of his coaches and mentors, Canadian Jonathon Power, was the first. Elias's journey to the top is a story that goes far beyond just talent. It's a story of dedication, self-belief, and defying the odds.Born in Lima, Peru, Diego Elias comes from a country where squash is a relatively unknown sport. Diego is an only child and both his parents are Peruvian. In a soccer mad country, he was different, because he was focused on the sport of squash. This was owing to his father, José Manuel Elías, who was a national champion of the sport. But, to be national champion at squash in Peru 20 years ago meant Diego's father had to be better than only about 200 squash players, because that is how many regular players there were in the entire country of 34 million people. Jose coached at Club de Regatas, a sports club in Lima, Peru. The club is one of the oldest sport clubs in South America and the biggest sports club in Peru. It is the best club in Lima for sports like gymnastics, swimming, football (soccer), and tennis. Squash was an afterthought. Diego did not have any squash heroes to look up to, aside for his dad of course. There certainly were not any PSA World Tour pros in Peru at that time. Club Regatas Lima was one of the few clubs in the country with squash courts. It was there that the older Elias encouraged his son to pick up a racquet as a child and begin his squash journey.
Squash was not the only sport played by the Elias family. Diego played tennis with his dad too. His dad loved the game and, over and above being a squash coach, he was a very good tennis coach too. Jose was a role model for his son and Diego avoided the distractions of the other sports and spent most of his free time on the squash courts at the club.
Diego's dad was well known at the club and throughout Peru, so he influenced more people than just Diego himself. Jose Manuel was a driving force behind growing the game of squash in Lima and Peru generally. When he started coaching there were very few good squash players in the country. And interclub leagues were non-existent. During Jose's time the squash 'federation' in Peru organized only 8 tournaments a year in the entire country. And in Lima there was one league system with 6 divisions and just a few hundred players in total. Jose was one of 8 players in the 'superior' division. Despite that early lack of wider interest in the game, Diego's father was making his living by giving private squash lessons to a small group of people - a group of players that lost to him every year in the National championships. That is, every year for two decades. He must have been very like-able and diplomatic to keep everybody coming back for more. And he is surely a great coach. But his club championship title and national championship streak ended abruptly by 2013, all because of his best young student, his son Diego.
Diego was so motivated to follow in his father's footsteps that he was at the club every day after school. Because of all this time in and around the sport spent he got very good at squash. Becoming a good squash player, like for any sport, takes years of conditioning and hard work. What made it even harder in Diego's journey is the fact that he no well-matched competition on a daily basis at each level as he progressed. It was not like being a soccer player in Argentina, or a rugby player in South Africa, where there were loads of dedicated resources and good competition was everywhere. Squash was still a relatively unknown sport in Peru. However, Elias's talent and his love for the game allowed him to progress quickly as a junior. He rose through the ranks of Peruvian squash players and dominated all the junior tournaments. All throughout his journey, Diego's biggest competition in the club, city, and country he lived in, was his dad, Jose. Elias senior and Elias junior always had good battles in the league and the Jose won consistently up until Diego was 15 years old. But when Diego turned 16 he started beating his dad and he never stopped there, he was continuously improving. Diego's talent at squash shone through and his ambitions soon reached far beyond beating his Dad, or anyone in his home country for that matter. He had his sights set on bigger targets.
He started playing tournaments internationally and, by 2015, Diego had some massive achievements under the belt. He had won 2 back-to-back World Junior Championships, as well as 2 prestigious British Junior Open titles. He soon supplemented them with two more medals at the Pan American Games. By the age of 17, he'd already graduated to playing in professional tournaments.
Diego was inspired by top players like Jonathan Power, who saw Diego's potential and invited him to train in Canada. When Diego originally heard of Jonathan's achievements as a squash player it inspired him to pursue a professional squash career. In fact, Jonathan Power travelled to Lima when Diego was 16 years old and played an exhibition match against him at the club. After the match Jonathan was asked by the large crowd why he came all the way to Peru to play a kid at squash. Power responded by saying “I am here because I think Diego will be number one in the world someday”. Well, he was right.
As a teenager Diego Elias made the bold decision to stop attending Cellegio Carmelitas high school full time and focus on squash. His mother and father homeschooled him. This was a massive gamble for a family in Peru, as nobody else in the country had ever made a career at the professional level as a squash player. There was no precedent for this. No doubt there were some surprised and disapproving school teachers in Lima at that time. But his dad wisely gave him the option, he didn't tell him what to do. And Diego's decision paid off. His decision to focus on squash and his dedication to training hard saw him keep getting better.
Having corporate sponsors paying part of his costs made a big difference to Diego's ability to travel internationally to tournaments, and for training trips too. He made numerous trips to train with Power in Canada. And having his father with him step by step was invaluable. It made a big difference traveling with a coach and a mentor, especially for a young teenager. By the age of 17, Diego had already graduated to playing in pro tournaments so going pro full time as an adult was a foregone conclusion. That had been decided when he stopped attending school years prior. He was all in.
Since starting playing on the PSA World Tour, Elias's rise through the professional ranks was not meteoric, it was steady. Throughout 2017 and 2018, Elias regularly made it to the latter stages of tournaments but he was not winning. In 2019 he finally had a breakthrough and he won both the Canada Cup and the Macau Open. 2020 began with another victory, this time at the Motor City Open in Detroit, while the following season saw the Peruvian win the Manchester Open. He became a better squash player over the course of many years.
In 2022 Diego's squash career went to the next level. He then became the first man from his country to win any of squash's "major" titles, triumphing at the Qatar Classic. Elias then won his first big titles on American soil. He was victorious at the U.S. Open in Philadelphia that year and moved from the ranking of world number 3. Then in January 2023 Elias won the prestigious Tournament of Champions in New York City and reached world number 2. That win boosted his points and, for the first time in squash history, South American Diego Elias was officially announced as the new World No.1 in the PSA World Rankings in April 2023.
There are a pretty remarkable set of achievements for a kid from a country where mining is the number one industry and where football (soccer) is by far the most popular sport. Diego became good at squash because he had a good role model. He owes it all to his dad, a true ambassador of squash in Peru. And now Diego is an ambassador for Peru throughout the world. And, if he is aiming to become one of the best to ever play the game, he is well on his way there now, after reaching world number one and by becoming world champion this year.
Elias is still young and has the potential to achieve even more in his career. He should be aiming to secure the world number one spot for an extended period. And the final feather in his cap would be to win a gold medal at the Olympic Games. Squash is appearing at the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles 2028 for the very first time in history. The sport is 150 years old and the modern Olympics has been contested for over 120 years. Squash has never been a part of it. It will be nice to see Diego win that Olympic gold medal in LA. He will certainly do it for his home country of Peru, not his adopted country of the United States.
These days Diego lives in Florida and trains in Boynton Beach, north of Miami. This Florida location may seem surprising, given that squash is not traditionally a summer sport, but this area also serves as a hub for most of the world's best golfers and tennis players, so there is a critical mass of resources and professionals dedicated to the sports industry. Aside from therapists and conditioning coaches, etc., Diego's squash coaching team now includes his father, Jonathon Power, Wael El Hindi, and Greg Gaultier. With his large support system, and his talent, dedication, and passion, there is no doubt that Elias will continue to be a force to be reckoned in the world of squash for many more years to come. And his greatest achievements still lie ahead of him.
Even if Diego never surpasses his existing achievements, they have already been incredible and extremely impactful. For example, in Peru his success has already transcended the squash court. He has become a national hero in his home country, inspiring a new generation of squash players and helping to grow the sport. The number of squash players in Peru has skyrocketed since Elias turned pro, and squash courts are being built at an unprecedented rate. There are now more squash courts being built at numerous clubs. And the number of regular squash players at Club Regatas itself is easily over a thousand. Even Terrazas Tennis Club down the road in Lima, which is famous for tennis with their 10 beautiful clay courts, has started adding squash courts. Previously they only had one international singles squash court. And given the growth in the game of squash and the increase in demand for space to play, these clubs and others like them will continue to build new squash courts. The country of Peru now even has over 20 WSF accredited coaches to keep up with the high demand for squash lessons. None of these coaching positions would have existed before Diego came along. And yes, his dad is still listed as one of those 20 coaches.
Today, Diego remains focused on even greater achievements. He sets his sights on becoming the undisputed best player in the world and ultimately, winning an Olympic gold medal in Los Angeles in 2028. With his talent, dedication, and the unwavering support of those closest to him, in particular his father, there's no doubt that Diego Elias will continue to be a force to be reckoned with in the world of squash for many years to come. He is a hero now to many squash players and fans around the world. But, in a sense, little has changed from his earliest days. Diego and his father, Jose Manuel, still seemingly travel together as player and coach. It is often just the two of them I am sure, like it was when Diego was younger. I wonder who would win at tennis now.
