Top seeds Conor Moran and Sara Sabry have won the respective men’s and women’s titles at the Connacht Senior Open.
Sutton player Moran, the 2025 Irish Nationals champion, opted to head to Galway rather than compete at an overseas PSA event this weekend and was rewarded with a three-match run to the title after an opening round bye in the 15-player men’s A event.
Following his recent Swiss Open quarter-final appearance, which only ended when beaten 2-3 (9-11 in the fifth-game decider) by eventual title winner Rowan Damming from the Netherlands, it was confirmed last Monday that Moran had jumped from No.149 to a career best No.141 in the PSA rankings.
That was quite the achievement for a player who came into 2025 listed No.345 on the rankings, and he celebrated impressively out west by initially picking off Belfast BC’s Jack Sterritt [8] 3-0 (11-4, 11-3, 11-2).
Next came another 3-0 success (11-9, 11-5, 16-14) against Sutton’s Oisin Logan, the London-based Galway fourth seed who won last month’s Munster Open.
Moran then faced another Sutton club colleague in the final, the No. 2-ranked Michael Creaven, who defeated Old Belvedere’s Richard Emslie 3-0, Celtic’s Aaron Knox 3-1 and Leinster CC’s Sean Conroy 3-0 to book his place in the decider.
Creaven came out on the attack, winning game one 11-5, and while Moran hit back to win the next three games and take the title, it was by no means easy as the scores were 11-4. 11-9, 11-9.
The eight-player women’s event also went to seeding with No.1 Sabry of Westwood defeating No.2, Rachel McNulty of Galway, in the final.
Sabry began her campaign with a 3-0 win over Loughrea’s Lyndsey Ward (11-2, 11-2, 11-1) and followed with another 3-0 win (11-1, 11-4, 11-6) over Galway’s Noelle McCarron to make the decider that she clinched 3-1 (13-11, 11-5, 6-11, 11-4).
Brian Lalor [5] of Curragh won the men’s B title, defeating Conor Gleeson [7] of Thurles 3-0 (11-4, 11-5, 11-2) in the final.
The event had an immediate opening round jolt as the No.1-ranked Daniel O’Regan of Limerick was eliminated 3-2 by Conor Plunkett, the No.16 seed from Ennis.
Meanwhile, Michael McKenzie [4] of Ballina defeated Janco Hesse [2] of the Curragh 3-2 (6-11, 11-6, 5-11, 11-5, 11-8) in the men’s C final. McKenzie had taken out No.1 seed Kelvin Cummins of Highfield 3-2 in the semi-finals.
