Ireland had double reason to celebrate on Wednesday at the Helsinki PSA Open as Conor Moran and Sam Buckley won their way through to Thursday’s quarter-finals with convincing 3-1 round of 16 wins.
Moran arrived in Finland having won the Curragh PSA Open final at Fitzwilliam on Sunday, a victory that lifted him seven places in the PSA rankings to 172.
He opened his Helsinki campaign with a 3-0 win on Tuesday against Christopher Gordon, the American ranked No.188 by PSA.
That was an encouraging start, but Wednesday’s win was different gravy as Edwin Clain, the Helsinki Open’s No.4 seed, came into the fixture ranked 83rd on the PSA list.
The French player’s pedigree didn’t matter to the Irish men’s No.1, who raced into a 2-0 lead (11-8, 13-11). He slipped off (5-11) in the third, but enthusiastically punched his ticket to the quarter-finals 11-9 in the fourth game.
Moran will now play the Brazilian Diego Gobbi, the Helsinki No.7 seed, on Thursday at 3pm Irish time (5pm local). The PSA No.105 defeated England’s Robert Downer 3-0 in his round of 16 match.
Buckley, seeded No.8 in Finland, will face the third seed, Israel’s Daniel Poleshchuk, in his quarter-final at 5pm Irish time (7pm local) on Thursday. The Irish No.2, who came into the tournament at No.126 on the PSA list, had a round one bye on Tuesday.
That left him starting his campaign in the round of 16 against Noah Meredith, the No.162 from England, who won 3-0 against Yehia Essam, the No.195 from Egypt. Similar to Moran’s win over Clain, Buckley jumped 2-0 up (11-6, 11-3) before conceding the third (8-11).
Victory was then secured 11-4 in the fourth, setting up an encounter with Poleshchuk, the PSA No.75, who won his round of 16 match 3-0 against Abdullah Amr of Egypt.
