Conor Moran and Sam Buckley have both registered career-high rankings following their latest exploits on the PSA circuit.
2025 National champion Moran has jumped eight places, moving from No.149 to No.141 following his thrilling run to the Swiss Open quarter-finals.
He had recently reached a best mark of No.145 following his early-season progress, but he has now beaten that with his three-match campaign in Geneva.
Moran picked off Lwamba Chileshe, the No.125 from New Zealand, 3-1 in the opening round of the 24-player, $12K Challenger event and he followed up with a 3-2 victory over another New Zealander, Elijah Thomas, who was No.97.
That set up a quarter-final with No.81 Rowan Damming from the Netherlands, and what materialised was a Friday feast of squash in which the defiant Moran was only pipped 2-3 after a 9-11 fifth game decider.
Moran’s effort became all the greater by the end of the week as the relieved Damming went on from that quarter-final escape to win the tournament, defeating Yassin Shohdy of Egypt in the semi-final and David Bernet of Switzerland in the final.
For Moran, his new mark of 141 represents an excellent 10 months as he came into 2025 listed No.345 on the rankings.
Elsewhere, Buckley’s ambition to become the first Irish player in a long while to break into the top 100 took another step forward as his run to the second round of the Czech Open, a $33,500 Copper status event catering for 24 players, lifted him from No.105 to No.104.
Buckley began his campaign in Brno with a convincing 3-0 win over Aly Hussein, the No.103 from Egypt, to book a round two date with Yannick Wilhelmi, the PSA No.45.
While the outcome against the Swiss player was a 0-3 loss, there was a promising consistency to Buckley’s play as he won six points in each of the three games against an opponent who went on to win Monday’s final against Declan James of England.
Buckley will be back on court this Tuesday evening in France, taking on Karim Aguib Michael, the No.158 from Canada, in an opening round match at the 24-player, $15K 5eme Open PSA Challenger event in Lagord.
