Irish squash royalty Derek Ryan was back at it this weekend, winning titles in Fitzwilliam. The Leinster Masters Open M50+ doesn’t have the same cachet as the nine Irish Nationals won by the former PSA men’s world circuit star. However, the 56-year-old Dubliner showed he still has what it takes despite rarely picking up his racket nowadays.
“I have been out of the game for probably 18 months apart from playing four or five times, so I want to get back playing,” Ryan told Squash Ireland before putting on his kit and getting into the swing of things. “I’m throwing my hat in the ring because I need to get back playing.”
It’s now 14 years – 2012 – since his last Irish Nationals victory, long after he had pulled the plug on the stellar pro career where he became world No.7. Memories of this rip-roaring adventure remain vivid, especially the mid-1990s epiphany that transformed his squash, turning him from a journeyman into a force threatening the upper echelons.
“I couldn’t have done it on my own,” he explained, quick to highlight the importance of people in his corner. “As a junior, you really need a good coach. It’s so invaluable, and I was lucky I had a very, very good coach called Alan Jerrold.
“He was quite a grounded individual, never made a drama. Everything was very consistent with his sessions. He was very technical, very organised, and he put on a lot of sessions for us as juniors as we went into seniors.
“There were always summer camps. I would probably have gone seven or eight weeks in a row, Monday to Friday, doing four to five hours a day – and you need that level to improve.
“But the epiphany moment was when I was 23. I went to England at 19 to play professionally and although I was playing hard on court, I wasn’t doing the right training and would have considered myself lazy.
“I knew that. I wasn’t strong enough. I mean, I was quite lean and wasn’t doing the right strength training. Back then, the guidance wasn’t what it is now with sports science and research.
“A fellow pro, who was probably a few years older than me, turned around and said, ‘If you want to keep playing professionally at 27 years of age, you’re going to have massive regrets if you don’t put in the work now’.
“I was never lazy on court, I would give absolutely 100 per cent on court in a league match, in a tournament, in practice. But I didn’t do enough of the gym work, didn’t do enough cardio. I’d rather just go on court and play and that wasn’t good enough.
“It was a real wake-up moment because it gave me a kick up the backside and I went to get a new coach. Not that I had left Alan, it was just that I was in the UK and Alan was in Ireland. We would still communicate and when I was home, he would watch my matches and whatnot and still do a bit of work.
“But I needed to evolve in the place I was living. I reached out to Chris McManus, who lived near Manchester and used to play internationally for Scotland. I asked if he could coach me and we clicked, became very good friends and still are today.
“He changed my game and got me working with a strength and conditioning specialist, but he was also a physiotherapist who worked with the marines. He did their training and was a tough guy but also just clever, very sports science directed and I started training properly.
“The results didn’t come; I had a really, really tough four months and probably had a very average season, but when I did the following summer of really training properly, I started to see results and then made a massive jump in my ranking. That was when I trained properly, from 23 on. That would have been the epiphany moment.”
Living in England hardened Ryan for the relentless grind. “There are a lot of knocks in squash when you go professional,” he explained. “A hell of a lot of knocks because the results are very hard to get. You are playing guys who are hungry as well and may have had a better sort of squash background than you did.
“You could only get so high in Ireland. There is a bigger ceiling beyond Ireland; it’s the same for most countries apart from Egypt, and you need to earn self-belief. I only found this out a few years after being on the tour.
“Anybody can be confident. You can get up in the morning, look yourself in the mirror and go, ‘I am going to have a fantastic day today, I am going to play great today’. Anyone can get confidence, but confidence can be shattered by one comment from somebody whereas people don’t shatter your self-belief.
“You earn it yourself and realise you start competing better, you lose in four sets to someone that would always beat you 3-0, but it was very tight in the fourth set. You earn that self-belief that I can actually beat this person and then all of a sudden, the day comes when you do beat them and that self-belief stays with you as long as you keep topping up your training and you are being disciplined. That was a big thing for me. That was self-belief and earning it.”
Of great help was Ryan’s willingness to chance his arm for better exposure. After a year of training full-time and playing in local Manchester leagues and tournaments around the UK, he began chasing participation in PSA events, essentially putting what little money he had where his mouth was.
“Reserves don’t generally travel to decent-sized tournaments, but I just thought someone was not going to turn up here. I was prepared to buy my ticket, pay for my hotel, and if I didn’t get in, I didn’t get in.”
With his game improving, though, securing qualification through the qualifiers became a more frequent route. “I just kept turning up for these qualifying events and if I got in, I was surrounding myself with some of the best players in the world.
“I was playing with people at a very high level, and it dragged my level up and that was the big thing for me. That is the big thing I would say to any junior: surround yourself with better players and good mentors, good coaches. You’re constantly getting good feedback from people.”
His highlights were numerous, as revisited in this accompanying Squash Ireland Q&A piece (click here), and it was summer 1999 when he revelled in his rankings peak. Unlike now, where PSA updates its rankings weekly online, back then it was monthly and unless you arranged to get the chart faxed to you, it arrived in the post.
“It would literally be like waiting for (exam) results, you’d open the envelope and here are the new rankings,” he said, recalling he was in Finland when the best news arrived. “I was training for two months with the Finnish players and the rankings came out.
“They were all checking and it was the first time I broke into the top 10. I hit No.10 or No.9. I had a good season, so they were all congratulating me and it was a good buzz.”
Aside from ultimately becoming world No.7 later that summer, Irish Nationals success was also huge for Ryan. “It was tough winning my first one because Willie Hosey was winning titles before I arrived and he was a generation ahead of me, probably about 10 years between us.
“They were memorable finals and were a big deal. Like, they were packed houses. There wasn’t a seat in the house. There was a really good sort of gladiatorial feel to it. He has his people in my corner; I had my people in my corner.
“They were good battles. Like, massively memorable and you wanted to win them. And when you won one, you wanted to keep going back and winning another.
“A lot of the time they were on just before Christmas, so I would have been on the world tour and always wanted to come home for Christmas, so it was a nice bonus having that tournament just before it, sort of at the halfway stage of the season.”
Ryal left squash, going to university as a mature student to qualify as a physiotherapist, but squash never left him. He runs his practice from a base at Fitzwilliam and since 2017, he has also worked on the PSA world tour, either providing lead physio services himself at seven or eight tournaments annually or arranging for others to attend.
His next event will be in April in El Gouna, a trip to Egypt that heralds a busy end to the 2025/26 season. He loves the work. “It reconnected me with the sport because when I retired, I went straight into full-time education for four years and then started my physio career, so I sort of stepped away from squash.
“Not that I didn’t like it, I was just busy with other things. But this really helped me to reconnect with the sport and a new generation of players who are super exciting, and it also got me back playing a little bit of squash again.
“It also got me working with some players on the strength and conditioning side. In 2018, I started working with Ali Farag, worked with him right up until he retired last year. That gave me another dimension to what I do in my working month, and it opened up the door to working with other players.
“I have worked with quite a few PSA players, although Ali’s retirement was a big shame but great for him as well – seven years working together was amazing. Amazing athlete to work with, amazing person to work with and I consider him a good friend, so we always keep in contact.
“I also work with Mostafa Asal, so I am super fortunate that PSA opened the door for me to work with these players. I am grateful to them for opening that door.”
Lately, Ryan has also started giving back to squash locally, doing S&C sessions with the teenagers in the new Squash Ireland Junior Performance Academy. It’s been refreshing, even if plenty of the potential stars of tomorrow still mightn’t be aware that he was once a star of the global game.
“It’s interesting, some of the players just see me as this strength and conditioning guy or a physiotherapist and I’d imagine some of the players don’t even know I was an ex-player,” he said.
“I certainly don’t stand on court and say I was A, B and C. Some of their parents may know, but I’d imagine some of the players are looking at me going, ‘What does he know about squash?’ Over time they will know and will appreciate that I can give a good bit of mentorship and input to them and into their careers and hopefully the plan is to travel away with a couple of the Irish teams, with the coaches.
“Connecting with the coaches and me will create something special for the players that maybe some other countries won’t have, that access to that experience, the mentorship, the connection, so in the future there should be good productivity with this alliance.”
What has he been advising Ireland’s future stars? “Commit to the sport, spend as much time as you can on court and don’t overtrain but train and train cleverly. Do the right amount of training, use strength and conditioning gym work to reduce the risk of injury rather than necessarily just to get stronger.
“You will get stronger by doing it, but it’s more to reduce the risk of injury. If you reduce the risk of injury, then the likelihood is that you are going to spend more time on court. If you overtrain and do too much, that’s when you can start getting niggles and you then can’t really put as much time into the court. Surround yourself with better players but yeah, get on court as much as you can.”
The legendary Derek Ryan was back on court at Fitzwilliam late on Friday night, rolling back the years to progress to the Leinster Masters Open M50+ semi-finals and he has since reached the Saturday 1:30pm showcourt final.
Before he dusted off his racket and togged out competitively for the first time since last May’s M45 Home Internationals appearance in Edinburgh, the former PSA men’s world No.7 took time out earlier in the week from his physiotherapy work for a life and times chat with Squash Ireland.
Now 56, the Dubliner, who won nine Irish Senior Nationals titles, enjoyed a 12-year stint as a player on the world circuit.
Aside from running his own physiotherapy practice from an office in Fitzwilliam, he has been the lead physio on the current PSA tour since 2017.
He has also recently started mentoring strength and conditioning to teenagers in the Squash Ireland Junior Performance Academy.
Before we publish our in-depth feature interview this Sunday with the Fitzwilliam player who started at Sandycove and also played at Dalkey, here is his On The T quick-fire Q&A:
MOST MEMORABLE MATCH: Probably two, really. One wasn’t a PSA event, but it was memorable because it was St Patrick’s Day and it was against Jansher Khan. It was only a league match, so you cannot take league matches on face value; PSA is what it is all about. Exhibition matches, practice matches, league matches, they really don’t count. But it was just a memorable win. I had never beaten him. I’ll take any win against someone like that, and it was St Patrick’s Day. Another standout was probably beating Rodney Eyles, who was world champion at the time, in Kuwait. I went on to get to the final and lost to Peter Nicol. That was probably my most memorable week.
BIGGEST INFLUENCES ON CAREER: I’d have to say my dad, Brendan, and Chris McManus, my coach.
BIGGEST MOMENT: Probably reaching the semi-finals in the Tournament of Champions in New York, in Grand Central Station. An amazing iconic venue, and it was basically the equivalent of a platinum event nowadays. I had a great run; I was hitting peak form. Lost to Jonathon Power in the semi-final quite badly, but he was an extremely good player.
BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT: There’s plenty. I was lucky I had a 12-year career. I have no regrets. That was the one thing, I got into the sport with no regrets, and I came out with no regrets. I would have done things differently. The biggest disappointment? Probably not making the final of a platinum event. I reached a couple of semis, and I never got to a final.
BEST SQUASH FRIEND: I would have to say Alex Gough.
FAVOURITE PLAYER: I am going to go back to a previous generation, and that was Jansher Khan, who was one of the best players in the world. Probably the main reason why I liked him was how he evolved his game. He was an incredibly gifted mover on court, and he could retrieve so many balls back that he created so much pressure. Then, as the years went on, he became incredibly accurate, so his short game was lethal in the end and he ended up being an all-round player, the full package.
MOST DIFFICULT OPPONENT: Australian Anthony Hill, who was ranked a couple of places above me. A difficult player because he was very, very good, with clever shot selection. I struggled against him for a couple of reasons: He was good, and I just never really got into his style of play. I found it difficult to play.
BEST SQUASH COUNTRY VISITED: Hands down, Egypt, for lots of different reasons. They dominate the sport.
FAVOURITE SHOT: Top spin backhand drop. I just used it a lot. I robbed it from a couple of players of previous generations and I just sort of adapted my own style with it.
BEST ADVICE: In my first year as a professional, don’t go and play tournaments in the summer because the summer is your training months. That was from a top 10 player, an English player. He said to train for three to four months and then try to enter bigger events. Go to events even if you are not in them. If someone pulls out, you’d be in the qualifying draw. That was the best advice I got because I hit the ground running on the circuit.
BIGGEST DRAG: Probably the earnings potential. It was a real slog because it was a minority sport. That was the biggest slog, but what doesn’t break you makes you, so there were positives out of that as well.
IF YOU WEREN’T A SQUASH PLAYER, WHAT WOULD HAVE BEEN: It definitely wouldn’t have been a professional sportsperson because I was brutal at every other sport I played, so that basically wasn’t going to happen. The answer to that, I don’t know. I did accountancy for one year, but I always had my eye on squash. The accountancy was just to calm me down for a year and then, all of a sudden, I said I am going to pursue squash full-time. Tricky question. I always looked at physiotherapy at a young age, so I became I physio and I think that is probably the route I would have taken. Physiotherapist, which I am now.
HONOURS: My best is reaching seven in the world, getting to the semi-finals of the Tournament of Champions, getting to the semi-finals of the Pakistan Open where I lost to Jansher Khan. I’m pretty proud of my Irish caps. I represented Ireland 213 times. They are probably my standouts, really; they mean the most.
Sam Buckley hasn’t yet settled into the Christmas swing. His PSA tournament commitments for 2025 ended with the recent Madeira International, but plenty of training and logistical planning for next year still needs to be done before a few days off.
It’s been a seminal year for the 24-year-old Dubliner. When it kicked off last January, he was ranked No.140 and when it peaked in mid-November, he had reached No.95 – the first time in a decade an Irish player featured in the top 100 since Arthur Gaskin a decade ago. Sweet.
Thing is, as super as this achievement of breaking into the upper echelon is, to him it’s only a stepping stone along his way to getting much, much further up the rankings.
“It was nice to break into the top 100, but to be honest, I hadn’t really been thinking about it too much because it’s not exactly where I want to be,” he explained to Squash Ireland. “I want to aim to be higher than that. It was still a nice box to tick, but I am hungry for more and to keep improving.
“I am definitely happy to do it and be the first person to do it in however many years, but I try not to dwell on it too much. I didn’t go pro to be the 99th best. I want to keep trying to be higher than that.
“I definitely take huge inspiration from the likes of Derek (Ryan, ex-No.7), Arthur (ex-No.60), Madeline (Perry, ex-No.3). Getting to that end of the rankings is extremely impressive, so hopefully we can find me or someone else in the next few years to replicate that.”
LA 2028, where squash is now part of the Olympic programme, is a Buckley target. “Definitely. It would be amazing, a huge goal of mine to be there. But I am just taking it week by week and trying to tick off a lot of small goals.
“I’m obviously nowhere near where I need to be to be there, so I am trying to just break my way through, top 80, top 60 and if I find myself there, that would be amazing.”
How soon? “Just hopefully as soon as possible. I know I am not there, but I am just putting in the work every day. If I just keep improving my level of squash, then the number beside my name on the list will be what it needs to be, I guess.”
When he spoke in midweek, Buckley’s ranking had dipped to No.103. The numbers used to only be totted up monthly. Now it’s a weekly thing and fortunes fluctuate.
“It’s just constantly changing. You are always going up or down a couple of places,” he said before picking out his best moment of 2025, a come-from-behind 3-1 round two win in France over a much higher-ranked, more experienced opponent.
“In Lagord against a guy from Pakistan (Muhammad Asim Khan), that was a pretty tough match. Physically. Mentally. A lot of decisions and stuff with the referee. I was just really happy to get over the line that day. It was one of those matches where I didn’t feel I was playing my best.
“I don’t think I was ever going to feel like that in that kind of match, and over the last year or so, I hadn’t always come out the right side of those matches, so I was happy to get over the line in that one.”
The one that got away and frustrated him the most happened 10 months ago. Buckley had arrived at the Irish Nationals last February looking to win his fourth successive senior title. Just when he seemed set to clinch it, momentum irrevocably turned.
Instead of banking a 3-0 win at Fitzwilliam, his Sutton clubmate Conor Moran produced an incredible comeback. “I was 2-0 and 8-4 up, maybe, and went on to lose that,” recalled Buckley.
“That was a pretty big learning curve, and thankfully, that was probably my worst experience this year. A lot of my best results of the year came within weeks of that, and I was pretty happy that I learnt from that.”
The 2026 Nationals loom large on Buckley’s calendar – February 6th-8th, back at the Fitzwilliam – but there are plenty of blanks yet to be filled for the second part of a season where the first, which featured tournaments in Helsinki, Brest, Vancouver, Brno, Lagord, Bern, London and Madeira, was intense.
“That probably wasn’t the greatest planning of all time,” he admitted about his run of eight events in 12 weeks, where 12 wins in 20 matches resulted in two semi-finals and three quarter-final appearances.
“It was probably one or two tournaments too many, but there were a couple I got into at the last minute from the reserve list, so they were opportunities I couldn’t really turn down.
“I am still at the ranking where I can’t pick and choose what I want to do. If I get the opportunity to play some bigger tournaments, even if they don’t fit my schedule perfectly, I’ll take them,” he said, adding how useful it was to play across the Atlantic for the first time in Canada.
“That was a good learning curve. I didn’t play my best, but even just going that far, I learned a lot of what I need to do to be more prepared, getting over the jet lag and things like that.
“Most places, it’s a bit of a blur, to be honest,” he added about the travel. “You could be anywhere in the world, and you just see a hotel room and a squash court, but it’s good. I enjoy it.
“I’ll be slightly less busy in the second half of the season because I played so many in the first half. I’ll probably play one or two less, as there are some bigger events. The Irish Open would be a big one, World Championship qualifiers and British Open qualifiers.
“There are quite big events, so hopefully I can be a bit more strategic and target a few events. I haven’t decided which other tournaments I am going to do. The closing deadline isn’t until the first week of January, so I still have a couple of weeks to decide.”
An admirer of the turbocharged route English youngster Jonah Bryant has taken to become PSA No.13 at the age of just 20 under Rob Owen, Buckley was at a Christmas lunch the other day in England as he is also now part of the Owen coaching stable.
That was a festive period treat. “I’ll definitely keep training away,” he said. “I obviously have a couple of days off, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and enjoy myself a bit but no, I’ll definitely still keep training, staying fit because there are tournaments on the horizon, so I need to stay in shape.
“It’s a pretty good time of year to do a bit of hard training because it’s the first time since September that I won’t have a tournament for a month or two. It’s a chance to get fit and strong and get a lot more work done than I can do in the season.
“I’ll be doing a bit of running and stuff for the next couple of weeks because during the season, when tournaments are coming up, I find running and stuff too tough on the body if you have a tournament in a few days, so you are more or less maintaining your fitness, whereas now you I have the chance to get a bit fitter and stronger.”
The higher Buckley went this past year, the more fraught some matches became with opponents frequently airing opinions to the referees to try and gain an advantage.
“It can be tough sometimes, especially if you are playing an opponent that you feel is purposely getting in your way or something. It’s tough not to react, but it’s never a positive if you are having to react because you lose your focus on what you are trying to do.
“I don’t really mind it, really. If you see the opponent chatting up the referee, it’s probably a sign that they are getting a bit annoyed, and maybe I am doing something right, and they are distracted. If it is me who is chatting to them, then it’s probably not a good idea because I am getting distracted myself.”
It was many years ago when Buckley became smitten with squash at Sutton and flourishing under the command of Eoin Ryan, but it wasn’t love at first swing when he and some pals took refuge indoors after getting rained off the outdoor tennis courts.
“It was mad. I originally didn’t really like the squash too much. I don’t know, I can’t remember. I just remember, I don’t like this. Maybe it was because I was only starting, and I wasn’t good.
“I was a bit competitive and didn’t like the fact that I couldn’t hit the ball. But that changed after a couple of months and I no longer wanted to be out on the tennis courts; I only wanted to be inside. I’m happy it worked out that way.
“I started with Eoin when I was probably seven or eight years old. I have known him for a seriously long time, a lot of trips away in Ireland, in Europe, in the world, for however many years. It’s been great.
“It has been a consistent backing and support. It’s great. His lifetime dedication to the sport has created a great environment where people love going down to the courts to play squash.”
Not being able to play during the pandemic only added to Buckley’s bond with the sport. “For the guts of a year, I couldn’t hit a squash ball, which wasn’t great. That was tough. But when it eventually did come back, it was such a fresh start.
“I was so excited to be able to play again and be able to compete, which was nice because sometimes you can just get into the rhythm, and you get used to doing it. When it is taken away, you realise how much you need it. I was like a kid in a sweet shop.”
Another challenge was balancing his squash with the demands of his four-year TU Dublin course in property economics. “I was lucky enough with the course I did. For most of the years, it was a three-day week, so I was still able to train twice pretty much most days.
“It was a bit harder when I was looking to go to tournaments and stuff. I couldn’t always go to the tournaments I wanted to; that was a bit frustrating. And during the course, I did a four- to five-month work placement, nine to five, so that was pretty tough for squash, but I got through it okay.
“I am very glad I did the course, it was a good experience and will hopefully stand me in good stead for the future if I need it. But it’s good to do something like squash as your job – if we are going to call it a job.
“It’s something that you love and are passionate about. It’s pretty exciting. I am definitely happier on the squash court than I would be in an office.”
Why so? “I just love the competitive aspect. Especially, you know the feeling before you go in, are you good enough, are you not, what is going to happen on the day? I just love that little buzz you get, and then you go out and prove to yourself you deserve to be there.”
Buckley proved exactly that in 2025.
Women’s top seed Hannah McGugan and men’s No.3 Alex Smith won Ulster Senior Open titles on Sunday at Belfast Boat Club.
McGugan, the PSA No.221 from Ballynafeigh SC, came into the tournament on the back of recent appearances on the international circuit in Andorra, Switzerland and England. That activity stood to her in her five-player, two-day round-robin event in Northern Ireland.
All four matches were won 3-0, including against second seed Aimee McConnell, the Ballynafeigh player who finished runner-up in an event where Westwood’s Sara Sabry, the recent Connacht Senior Open title winner, placed fifth.
The seven-player men’s A event had Sean Conroy of Leinster CC listed as the No.1 seed but he was picked off 3-1 in the final by Smith, the No.3 from Fitzwilliam who defeated Celtic’s Brian Knox and Oisin Logan, the Sutton player who was this season’s Munster Senior Open title winner.
Ewan Kielty of Sligo won the men’s B title as the fifth seed, defeating the No.2 Nathan Wilkinson of ABC 3-0 in the final of the eight-player event.
Will Rea of Western and Omair Azam of Queens were unbeaten in their men’s C section groups. No.7 seed Joe Kelly of Belfast BC won the eight-player D section, beating No.4 Haris Papavlasopoulos of Windsor 3-0 in the decider.
Breanne Flynn has broken new ground in her squash career, achieving a career-best PSA women’s ranking of No.103 following her run to last Saturday’s Schraglage Open final in Stuttgart.
The Dubliner came into the tournament as the world’s No.109 following her encouraging progress in recent weeks at the Monte Carlo Classic and the 12 Pierre & Vacance in Andorra, and three wins on the bounce qualified her for the final.
A highlight of that run to the decider was her semi-final against Malak Samir of Egypt, as she was 0-2 down before reeling off three games on the bounce to win 3-2.
However, another Egyptian, Nour Megahed, proved just a step too far when it came to clinching the title. Flynn went 2-1 up only for her opponent to finish stronger and take the last two games 6-11 and 4-11.
Victory in the final would have netted Flynn (pictured above by Christian Lortat following the tournament in Germany) a better rankings bounce and taken her into the top 100 – the title win fuelled Megahed’s jump from No.116 to No.101 – but enough points were still secured to move her up six places, climbing from No.109 to a best-ever No.103.
It was October 2022 when Flynn registered her previous best of No.104. That was at a time in her career when she was juggling work as a physio with part-time squash.
Now working full-time in squash, she outlined her ambitions in this candid Squash Ireland interview and has delivered on her intention to achieve like never before.
While the rankings were kind to Flynn, they worked against Hannah Craig despite her enjoyable run to the Indian Open semi-finals where she led the PSA No.33, India’s Anahat Singh, 2-1 on the outdoor glass court.
However, games four and five went against her 6-11 and 4-11, and her exit was followed on Monday by the rankings update that confirmed a drop of two places – from No.67 to No.70 – despite her two wins to reach the last four.
Craig travelled to India following an appearance at the China Open, and her adventure continues this week as she is on court on Tuesday in the Hong Kong FC Open, starting against Lucy Turmel, the No.31 from England.
Switching to the men’s circuit, Sam Buckley has moved from No.99 to No.97 with his run to the London Open quarter-finals. Two wins were followed by a four-game, last-eight encounter with England’s George Parker, the No.56, that finished 1-3.
Conor Moran hasn’t been in action since his Connacht Open win at the start of November, but his body of excellent work over the course of 2025 has stood to him in the latest rankings update as he has moved from No.138 to No.137, another career-best for the player who started the year as the No.345.
Breanne Flynn is on the cusp of achieving a career-best PSA ranking after enjoying a sharp rise of seven places following last week’s Monte Carlo Classic.
The 30-year-old went into the 24-player, $32.5K Copper status tournament ranked No.116, and she scored a deserved 3-0 win over Nadia Pfister, the No.99 from Switzerland, in the round of 32.
That booked a glamour round of 16 tie versus Melissa Alves, the No.19 from France, and while the result was a 0-3 loss, there was solace to be had from the No.1 seed going on to win the title with three more 3-0 wins.
Flynn learned on Monday that her rankings reward for reaching the second round was a jump to No.109, just five places shy of the career-best No.104 registered in October 2022.
The Sutton player is back on court this Wednesday in the round of 16 of the 24-player, $6K Schraglage Open in Germany, where she is seeded No.2. Flynn, who had an opening round bye, will face Tereza Siroka, the No.245 from the Czech Republic, in the round of 16.
Hannah Craig is also in action on Wednesday in the $73.5K Copper status Indian Open in Indore, having moved up one place in the rankings to No.67 following last week’s China Open.
The 26-year-old was beaten 0-3 in the round of 32 by Aifa Azman, the PSA No.32 from Malaysia, but she has travelled to India confident of enjoying a much longer run.
Listed as the No.3 seed in the 24-player event, she opens against Anika Dubey, a local player ranked No.415, after getting an opening round bye on Tuesday.
Victory would secure a quarter-final on Thursday against either Nga Ching Cheng, the No.104 from Hong Kong China, or Rathika Suthanthira Seelan, the No.146 from India.
Switching to the men’s circuit, Sam Buckley will be in action in the opening round of the 24-player, $15K London Open. Having enjoyed a career-best No.95 earlier this month, the 24-year-old is currently positioned No.99.
He will play Heston Malik, the No.201 from England, with a round of 16 fixture against Elijah Thomas, the No.96 from New Zealand, up for grabs.
WEDNESDAY’S SCHEDULE
Indian Open: Hannah Craig v Anika Dubey (8am Irish time)
Schraglage Open: Breanne Flynn v Tereza Siroka (2:30pm Irish time)
London Open: Sam Buckley v Heston Malik (8pm Irish time)
Hannah Craig is hoping to fire up her season with participation at this week’s $124.5K China Open.
The PSA women’s No.68 has yet to break the first-round barrier in 2025/26, as she fell at the first hurdle in New York and Toronto.
However, she is now in Shanghai preparing to take on Aifa Azman, the PSA No.32 from Malaysia, on Tuesday.
At stake in the 24-player tournament – where Hania El Hammamy, the PSA No.2 from Egypt, tops the seedings – is qualification for a second-round fixture against Amina Orfi, the PSA No.3 from Egypt.
The trip to China is the start of a busy period for Craig, as she is also entered in the $73.5K Indian Open in Indore and the $6k Fountain Tire Winter Open in Edmonton.
Breanne Flynn is closer to home this week, taking part in the $32.5K Monte Carlo Classic.
The PSA No.116 enjoyed a cracking start on Monday, winning 3-0 against Nadia Pfister, the No.99 from Switzerland, to book a glamour Tuesday meeting with Melissa Alves, the No.19 from France.
Sam Buckley has enjoyed another major bounce up the PSA men’s squash rankings, climbing to No.95 following his run to the Bern Open semi-final.
Buckley had recorded a major milestone when his 5eme Open Lagord quarter-final appearance in France catapulted him into the top 100, the first Irish men’s player to get that high since current head coach Arthur Gaskin was on the circuit a decade ago.
However, there was no resting by Buckley on his laurels following that encouraging campaign in France, and he continued his momentum in Switzerland where he came within a whisker of reaching the tournament final.
Despite leading 1-0 and 2-1, he was ultimately forced to settle for an agonising 2-3 loss to Switzerland’s David Bernet, the eventual title winner, but Buckley’s reward was a four-place rise from No.99 to a new career-best No.95 ranking.
His next assignment will now come at the $15K, 24-player London Open where he takes on England’s Heston Malik, the PSA No.205, in the opening round on November 19th.
Conor Moran also achieved a career-best last week following his run to the Swiss Open quarter-finals with a Connacht Senior Open title win.
PSA listed him at No.138, an incredible rise from No.345 at the start of 2025, but he has slipped back one place in the latest update to No.139 after a week away from the circuit.
Squash Ireland CEO Scott Graham has paid tribute to Sam Buckley on becoming the first Irish men’s player to break into the PSA top 100 in a decade.
Buckley last week reached the quarter-finals of the 5eme Open Lagord in France after defeating Muhammad Asim Khan of Pakistan, the PSA No.75, 3-1 in the round of 16. That success lifted him five places in the rankings, up from No.104 to No.99.
Breaking into the top 100 is a significant milestone. Not since current Ireland head coach Arthur Gaskin was in his pomp has there been an Irish presence that high up the men’s rankings.
Ahead of Buckley’s next appearance, this Thursday’s round of 16 Bern Open meeting with No.204 Manuel Paquemar of France, chief executive Graham said: “Huge congratulations to Sam Buckley on breaking into the top 100.
“It’s a big milestone, but I know Sam won’t be stopping there, he will be pushing on and he is competing at a really high level. It’s an important stepping stone, but definitely it is only the beginning for Sam.”
Monday’s rankings update also confirmed a career-best rise for Conor Moran. Last weekend’s Connacht Senior Open title winner is now up to No.138, a whopping leap of 207 places from the No.345 he occupied last January.
“We also have Conor coming up behind as well,” continued Graham. “His ranking has improved from the mid-300s up to 138 at the moment.
“He has made huge strides over the last year with the way he is playing and some of the results he has had. He is definitely going to continue climbing the rankings, and no doubt he will have his eyes set on a top 100 world rankings as well.”
It’s not just in the men’s section where Ireland’s top players are gaining impressive traction. “On the women’s side, Hannah Craig has also got a top 100 ranking – No.68 at the moment – and we have Breanne Flynn, who is No.115 and also nearing a career high [her best is No.104].
“After coming back from injury, she is on a good trajectory and I am sure she is going to be pushing for a top 100.”
Giving an overview of the collective progress of Ireland’s leading high-performance players, Graham added: “Wouldn’t it be amazing if we had four players ranked inside the top 100 in the months ahead?
“Their performances and results are also going to inspire a lot of the other players who are looking at what the current crop are doing and saying, ‘I can do that as well if I pursue a career in squash playing on the PSA tour’. They definitely have the capability to become top 100 world-ranked players.
“In terms of the team competitions, European and World Championships, we need that strength in depth. We need four men and four women who are playing on the PSA tour, pushing each other on with a really high world ranking. That will improve the seeding at the Championships.”
Graham also thanked the mentors who have assisted the players and the sports organisations that have helped Squash Ireland increase its funding in recent times.
“Things are moving in the right direction in our high-performance programme. I want to thank all of the clubs, personal coaches, family members and so on who have helped the athletes to make it where they are.
“I also want to thank Sport Ireland and Sport Northern Ireland for their investment in our high-performance programme, which is really starting to pay dividends.
“We are still at the early stages of it, but we can see the fruits of that now as we are developing players and pushing on to the next level. That is very exciting for the months and years ahead.”
Sam Buckley has broken into the PSA top 100 rankings following his exploits last week in France, becoming the first Irish men’s player to do so since Arthur Gaskin a decade ago.
A recent second round Czech Open appearance in Brno, where a convincing 3-0 win over Aly Hussein, the No.103 from Egypt, was followed by a 0-3 exit against Yannick Wilhelmi, the PSA No.45, had lifted Buckley to a career-best No.104, but he has now trumped that achievement with a jump of five places to No.99.
Buckley flew out of the traps at the 5eme Open Lagord last Wednesday, winning 3-1 against Muhammad Asim Khan of Pakistan, who was ranked No.75.
His follow-up match against Yassin Elshafei of Egypt, the No.92, ultimately didn’t go to plan but his 1-3 loss only materialised after he very nearly went 2-0 ahead.
More than enough rankings points were secured at the tournament in France to enable him to break into the top 100 ahead of his next assignment, a round two match next Thursday at the Bern Open in Switzerland.
Conor Moran, who won the Connacht Senior Open on Sunday, has also enjoyed another career-best rankings boost in a year where he started at No.345 last January.
A thrilling run to the recent Swiss Open quarter-finals had moved him from No.149 to No.141, but the latest PSA rankings list published on Monday now has him at No.138. Moran’s three-match campaign in Galway culminated in a 3-1 win in the final over Michael Creaven.
Switching to the women’s circuit, Hannah Craig jumped three places and Breanne Flynn four in the latest update.
Craig, whose career-best is No.61, moved from No.71 to No.68 following her appearance at the Toronto Open, while Flynn, who had an opening round win last week in Andorra, is now at No.115, just 11 places off her career-best No.104.
