By RJ Mitchell
Mostafa Asal has admitted that Australian tennis maverick Nick Kyrgios’ run to the final of the Wimbledon Gentlemen’s singles has continued to generate comparisons with his own crowd-pleasing showmanship.
Squash’s great showman is a fan of the shoot-from-the-lip Aussie and has revealed that he even switched-on highlights of Kyrgios’ fractious five set-victory over Stefanos Tsitsipas when a trip to the cinema proved the perfect answer to insomnia at the weekend.
The similarities between Asal, without doubt the most talked about squash-player in the sport right now and one who at times, just like Aussie bad boy Kyrgios, courts the good, the bad and sometimes even the ugly when treading the boards in front of the Pyramids in his home country of Egypt or at iconic venues like New York’s Grand Central Terminal, just as Kyrgios has once again on the hallowed lawns of SW19 this summer, are there for all to see.
Yet Asal points to the fact that as an elite athlete, his mission is almost as important to entertain as to add to his increasingly burgeoning trophy haul, which this season has seen him claim the U.S. Open, the El Gouna International and the CIB PSA World Tour Finals.
While the World No.3 points to the fact that Kyrgios is almost as well known for his theatrics as tennis’ greats Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic are for their serial haul of Grand Slam trophies as proof that the parameters of success are far from black and white.
“I feel like for any player in any sport if people are not talking about him then he is not a success and maybe that is the same for Nick, so I love the talking in squash, with negative or with positive, I don’t care and I think Nick is similar,” Asal said.
“At the end of the day I want to entertain my fans and also to entertain myself and my family and it is grabbing so much coverage for the sport.
“But it is true some people say to me: ‘Mostafa you are similar to Nick Kyrgios and how he is playing and how he is on court.’ I get lots of comments like that but at the end of the day you are entertaining yourself by letting the people talk about you or the media talk and that is also good for me and most important of all good for squash.
“Last season all the people were talking about me and it was fun, I know that every single thing I do on the court or off it will be viral and everyone will talk about it and that is a really good feeling and it gives me great confidence.
“It is funny I was at the cinema earlier …….
Source: https://psaworldtour.com/news/view/10257/asal-enjoys-comparisons-to-tennis-nick-kyrgios