Sufiah gets accepted to Oxford
After a while the kids' focus switched from tennis to studying for their A-level examinations. Even though they had never taken any formal exams before, they performed very well, and Sufiah was accepted to Oxford University at age 12 on the basis of her results and performance in the Oxford interviews.
We had not expected this, and when the media heard about Sufiah's acceptance and the other family achievements, we received an enormous amount of coverage in the newspapers and on TV — even though we turned down most requests.
While I was happy and excited for Sufiah, I've always been a cautious person and I was worried that she might be too young for university. I felt that she could cope academically, but wasn't convinced that she could handle being at Oxford on her own amongst 18-year-olds. I was also concerned that being the centre of attention and in the media spotlight would only increase the pressure on Sufiah.
But Sufiah was adamant about going to Oxford, and at this point I had very little influence over her decisions. In retrospect, everyone was very naive about the whole thing, especially as nobody could advise us on the pros and cons of sending such a young child to university.