Timonaliz Alarcos-Kriebisch is certainly a name to conjure with and we'll be hearing it a lot more if the girl from Papua New Guinea continues her upward trajectory in squash's junior rankings.
The renowned Bradley Hindle coached young Timonaliz for four years after she and her mother relocated to Brisbane to be near his famous Daisy Hill club. Hindle is not a man prone to hyperbole, so when he labels her a "potential future top 10 player" it's definitely worth taking a closer look.
The 13-year-old is daughter of a German brewer, Tim Kriebisch, and Papuan mother, Merlyn Alarcos, who was director of the island's premier squash club, Port Moresby, and is Secretary of the national squash federation, having worked in various roles for the organisation since 2004.
During four years in Brisbane, Timonaliz won the U13 Australian national title in 2024 and was ranked no.1 in the country.
Late last year, her father's job took the family to Denmark and since relocation she has entered 11 tournaments on the ESF European junior circuit, winning three of them (Finnish, Luxembourg and Bulgarian Junior Opens) and finishing runner-up in two (Portuguese and Nordic).
Back home, she was voted the Papua New Guinea's Junior Female Athlete of the Year this summer. Incredibly, she finished fourth at the recent Oceania Senior Regional Championships in Samoa, competing with the best adult players on the continent.
Hindle, who made an exception by taking Timonaliz under his wing in Brisbane having vowed that his days of individual junior coaching were over, said she "has a very special type of nature that makes her incredibly coachable."
"From the start I identified that she was a bit special," he told Squash Player. "She was like a sponge when it came to technical information.
"If you want to see a backhand technique, just watch hers. The way she gets her shoulder back and executes, she's way ahead of the game. She's doing better than 17-year-olds in Australia with her technique. It gives her sublime power with a lot of force going through the ball.
"She also understands the patterns of the game and is able to pre-empt what her opponent is going to do very quickly.
"She's one of the few young players who, when I set her something to work on, she would come back with it four times better. I've only had four or five kids in all my programmes do that. That's when I realised she's up there with the Egyptians right now."
Hindle believes the youngster's mentality is also suited to the competitive environment. "She loves the game, loves training and learning," he said. "When she loses, she's not hard on herself, she only gets emotional thinking that she's let the people around her down. She's a top 10 kid in the world moving forward."
Timonaliz's mum Merlyn reflected: "When Brad watched her technique, he said she ticked all the boxes. He invested a lot of time in her. He told us, 'She's kind of special, you need to take this further.'"
On her experience in Brisbane, the teenager herself said: "Bradley really took care of me and helped me a lot with my game. There were a lot of kids at Daisy Hill and I made a lot of friends. It was a true club full of people I was really close with."
The family is yet to find a similar base since relocating to Salgelse, an hour's drive from Copenhagen. Although Timonaliz is working with a fitness trainer, she is yet to find a local coach, instead travelling to the capital city twice a week for lessons at Herlev Squash Club.
"It's a big change and we are still adapting to it," said mum Merlyn. "We're trying to fit in and the kids [Timonaliz has a brother Ethan] are learning Danish before they get into proper schooling."
Being close enough to compete regularly in European junior circuit tournaments is a bonus, however. Next on her calendar are the Swiss and Scottish Junior Opens in December and the British Junior Open in January.
"I enjoy so much going to the different countries and playing on the European tour," Timonaliz said. "It's different to Australia because here there are events nearly every week. Competition-wise, there are better players in Europe. It's not like there's one or two good players, all of them are experienced and can play well.
"Not many people play on the European tour under the Papua New Guinea flag. I'm really happy reaching finals in these tournaments and I feel like I've improved so much in the last 10 months."
Mum Merilyn added: "Everything is possible for her. We don't usually see PNG athletes on the European squash circuit so it makes me very happy to see this. We can't wait to see what else Timonaliz can achieve."
