Seven years ago, Quadri Yusuf was just another curious 10-year-old boy in a Lagos neighbourhood when two childhood friends walked into his home carrying a squash racket.

The racket was unlike anything he had ever seen. He picked it up, examined it closely and refused to let it go.

His friends, brothers Joshua and Elijah Daniel, laughed.

“If you like it that much, come and join us,” they teased him.

Neither the boys nor Yusuf himself could have imagined that the innocent invitation would become the beginning of a remarkable journey to one of the biggest stages in junior squash.