City girl Alia Kankaria had won her first international meet, the SRAFTKL International Junior Open Squash Championship, held in Kuala Lumpur, in April 2025.

Fast forward to December and the spunky young girl, who turned 11 on December 10, boasts of several podium finishes — runner-up at the Henri Charpentier Lion City Junior Open in Singapore, a third-place finish at the Penang Junior Open and signing off the year with a win at the REDtone KL International Junior Open, a prestigious platinum event.

With it, Alia also became the Asia No. 1 in the Under-11 girls’ category, dethroning Malaysia’s Keerti Pradha Junivar Bala, who she defeated thrice in the course of the year.

In the domestic sphere, too, her achievements are aplenty.

She defended her sub-junior national title and also won the Indian Junior Open and the Northern Slam titles.

Then just 10-year-old, she made it to the Indian team in the girls’ Under-13 category and took part in the Asian Junior meet in Gimcheon, Korea, in July, where India finished joint first with Malaysia.

An impressive haul, to say the least.

So what motivates the Class VI student of RP Goenka International School to keep going?

“Firstly, I want to cement my place in the Indian team. And then I also want to win many more bigger tournaments,” Alia told The Telegraph. “And to do that, I am prepared to work very hard and sacrifice time with my friends.”

She, like all sportspersons, indeed has to make a lot of sacrifices, balancing practice, travelling and tournaments with school work.

Her school, she pointed out, is always very supportive, giving her extra classes and more time to complete her assignments as her tournaments and travelling
often causes her to miss
classes.

On school days, it is one hour of fitness training in the morning and two hours of practice in the evening for her while on weekends and other school holidays, it is five hours of rigorous training daily.

No parties with friends and no junk food. Does Alia miss it all? “No,” the motivated youngster says without a moment’s hesitation, “Because I have achieved much more than my friends have.”

For now, of course, she will have a well-deserved break starting with a school trip to Lonavla.

But thereafter, it will be three months of training, which will include a 2-3 week stint in Cairo in February, before the season opens again.

The India team trials, which will be held at the end of March is the first on her priority list is. And if she qualifies, she will head for the Asian Juniors in Iran in May.