The June PSA
rankings reveal that Ramy Ashour is one step closer to claiming
the world number one spot that everyone expects to be his. Rising to
number two, the double world junior champion is just 43 points
behind fellow-Egyptian Amr Shabana, whose mighty-impressive 15-month
reign at the top now looks under serious threat.
Malcolm Willstrop on the rise and rise of Ramy ...
The emergence of Ramy Ashour
It
was reasonable to expect big things of a player good enough to win
the world junior championship twice, since the record of nearly all
the World Junior Champions who have won it once, never mind twice,
bears the closest inspection.
Nevertheless I doubt if anyone foresaw the quite remarkable
achievements of Ramy Ashour in 2006-07. His impact on the senior
world scene, which looked highly competitive and high-quality, was
immediate and dramatic.
To do what he has at such a young age hardly looked possible.
What the two young players Gregory Gaultier and James Willstrop
achieved before he arrived on the scene looked special enough but
they, like their seniors, must wonder what has hit them. They have
both had the inevitable problems that beset athletes this season,
James before Christmas, Gregory more recently, but Ramy with his
extraordinary movement and racket skills has, like all great players
- perhaps he hasn't been around long enough to be called great yet -
raised the bar.
That
has to be applauded, since the raising of the bar required something
exceptional and also welcome, as Ramy's achievements offer new
challenges to all around him.
Sport benefits from players who take their sport to new levels -
many could be named in the past and Tiger Woods and Roger Federer
are perhaps two who have done and are doing that at present.
It may be that in the next few years Ramy will assert himself and go
clear of the field, but that is never an easy matter and he will,
like others, have to remain injury free and undistracted. There is
no reason to suppose he won't do just that, but Dame Fortune can be
cruel - look at Johnny Wilkinson.
Not only is Ramy extra special, he has a winsome smile and an
engaging friendly personality - everything in fact needed to lead
his sport, as others have done before him.
Sport needs charismatic stars and squash appears to have found one.
Ramy: down
to Earth
April '07 Courtesy of International Squash
Magazine, Richard Eaton talks to Egypt's
teenage sensation who has already won three Super Series titles this
year ...
Only
those who have been living on planet Zog will be unaware that Ramy
Ashour recently won his first World Tour titles, rose to five in the
world at the age of eighteen, and has been dazzling audiences with
his lambent smile. Everyone knows that he is going to be the next
great thing - except those who claim that he already is.
"His
aura just took over", one female correspondent wrote recently, "and
all the spectators fell under the charm of this wizard of a
teenager. And how not to," she concluded with more then a hint of
abandon.
Many who have seen the talent and charisma of the remarkable
Egyptian have started taking these things for granted. The question
is no longer whether he can be a leading player, but whether
anything can stop him becoming one of the greats.
Well there is. Most players know it, and Ashour admits it. It is
particularly a risk for those who capture the imagination of the
pubic. It's pressure.
It comes in different guises. There is the pressure of competition,
especially as so many men can now win major titles.
There is the pressure of expectations: fans demanding time and
energy, media expecting success which cannot be guaranteed; and
there is the political pressure, from those seeking to exploit him
for power and influence.
Then there is the pressure which affects modern squash players worse
than most sportsmen - the physical pressure from so many matches and
so much travel.
"Fasting during Ramadan is the toughest thing in life," Ashour says.
"Nowadays I will not fast during a tournament as I would have no
energy and couldn't play."
There is also mental pressure before and during big matches. "Before
a match I remain calm by listening to music or singing," Ashour
says. He is, some say, good enough to consider singing
professionally, like Ahmed Barada.
And inevitably there is social pressure, the temptation of parties,
booze, and women. This increases insidiously when he is away. "The
girls in Egypt are not as open minded as foreign girls and don't
understand that you have to train and spend a lot of time away from
home," Ashour claims. "They get bored and think it's because you
don't like them any more."
Although
some pressure is unavoidable, much can be reduced. But superficially
Ashour seems to allow more on board than you might expect.
"I'm very proud of my city," he said, talking of Cairo. "I want any
benefits from my success to go to my home town. I want to do it for
Egypt."
That is a different attitude from that adopted by many Western
sports stars, often in collusion with a sports psychologist. Their
mantra is more often: 'I'm not doing this for my country, or my
sport, or anyone else, but for me.'
To a Middle Easterner this may sound selfish, but is less so than it
seems. All those dutiful sentiments are usually part of a player's
mindset at some level.
But unless he focuses on something everyday, manageable, even
simple, the mind cannot function at its best.
"I
got Ramy to see a sports psychologist, but he didn't like it," said
Anthony Hill, the former top ten player from Australia who is one of
Ashour's coaches.
"He thought he was after his money. I think he'll realise later that
the sports psychologist helped him."
Hill has nevertheless helped significantly, according to Ashour,
especially in developing a unique style in which opponents are
sucked into the web of a rally before suddenly being pounced on.
Hill still tries to help with the psychology. "Do your own thing,
but go with the flow, and you will survive," he said. "If you try to
go against people or you are fighting them or disliking them from
the first moment, you will have trouble. I went one way, and I am
saying to you go the other way - because enemies last for ever."
Ashour's sceptical responses to the professional psychologist may
have occurred because he himself is gifted in this area anyway.
Both his parents are flight crew with Egyptian airlines and he has
acquired some of their helpful cosmopolitan outlook. He has
persisted with his education at a local university. His personality
is open and gregarious.
All this helps him fashion his own ways of coping with a snare-laden
world. Amidst it are unhelpful opinions predicting he is an imminent
World No.1.
"I
have heard about these words," he says carefully. "But every time I
hear them, it's with 'come on, push, push,' or there's a racket
contract, a clothes contract, and money in it. Perhaps I can be
number one in one year, but that's a lot of pressure," he concludes.
The continual struggle to act and perform freely continues on court.
"While I try to find an opening on court, I also try to find an
opening in my mind to get through that," he sagely described it. "I
(try to) think there is no pressure."
In similar ways he tries to cope with those whose over-encouragement
is a mixed blessing. "These people pump me up," he says. "I don't
want to let anyone down, and try to work harder. But I try to find
an easier way to think about it.
"It's hard to explain. A lot of things go through your mind. When
you go higher in the rankings many other things happen.
"You have to think before losing your temper and keep composed, on
court and off court. On court I keep thinking, breathing, and
thinking. Off court you just have to be yourself. And you have to
think better."
Ashour manages that because, as you can tell, he is a great thinker.
But even this cannot always be enough. He has no manager, no medial
ligament in his right knee, and almost no protection from
overwhelming pressure if he focuses too much on his country's
dreams.
Most of Egypt wants him to grow fast and become number one soon. But
this is an exotic, rare, and delightful, but vulnerable plant. Give
it time to grow.
"I grew up wanting to
be like the top ten guys, I grew up wanting to be somebody
different, somebody special, that’s why I’m trying to make my own
game…"
"When you go on court
for the 14th day and it's your second final in two weeks you feel a
bit loose, you have to search for the motivation to win, which is
what I was doing at the start. I'm so proud to win these two
tournaments."
It
was reasonable to expect big things of a player good enough to win
the world junior championship twice, since the record of nearly all
the World Junior Champions who have won it once, never mind twice,
bears the closest inspection.
Only
those who have been living on planet Zog will be unaware that Ramy
Ashour recently won his first World Tour titles, rose to five in the
world at the age of eighteen, and has been dazzling audiences with
his lambent smile. Everyone knows that he is going to be the next
great thing - except those who claim that he already is.
"His
aura just took over", one female correspondent wrote recently, "and
all the spectators fell under the charm of this wizard of a
teenager. And how not to," she concluded with more then a hint of
abandon.
Although
some pressure is unavoidable, much can be reduced. But superficially
Ashour seems to allow more on board than you might expect.
"He thought he was after his money. I think he'll realise later that
the sports psychologist helped him."
"I
have heard about these words," he says carefully. "But every time I
hear them, it's with 'come on, push, push,' or there's a racket
contract, a clothes contract, and money in it. Perhaps I can be
number one in one year, but that's a lot of pressure," he concludes.
