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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Sam Buckley and Conor Moran are back on court this week in Europe looking to build on the respective career best rankings they recently achieved on the PSA men’s tour.
Buckley will be in action in the Czech Republic on Thursday as the PSA No.105 – his highest rating yet after moving up two more places following participation in last week’s Richardson Wealth Open in Canada.
Having started the season last month at No.126, the Dubliner has enjoyed some fruitful trip abroad, reaching the quarter-finals of the Helsinki Challenger in Finland and the semi-finals at Simply The Brest in France.
Last week’s trip to Canada turned out to be a short-lived campaign as Buckley was eliminated in the opening round in Vancouver.
But that appearance helped to bolster his latest ranking and he will now hope to do better at this week’s Czech Open on Brno, a $33,500 Copper status event catering for 24 players – including Declan James, the PSA No.25 from England.
Buckley will be on court on Thursday morning (10am Irish time) against Aly Hussein, the PSA No.103 from Egypt. At stake is progress to a second-round fixture versus Yannick Wilhelmi, the PSA No.45 from Switzerland, who is seeded fifth in Brno.
Moran, meanwhile, will be back in the thick of it in Switzerland following his recent break. Buoyed by a quarter-final run in Helsinki, a title win at the Stourbridge Open in England and then reaching round two at Simply The Brest, the 2025 Irish Nationals champion rose to a career-best of No.146.
Last week’s inactivity will see him go into the Swiss Open in Geneva listed at No.149 but with every confidence when he meets Lwamba Chileshe, the No.125 from New Zealand, in a first-round match on Wednesday (1:30pm Irish time).
Up for grabs at the 24-player, $12K Challenger event in Switzerland, where PSA No.94 Yassin Elshafei of Egypt is the No.1 seed, is a second-round meeting with Elijah Thomas, the PSA No.97 from New Zealand who is seeded seventh.
Switching to the women’s tour, PSA No.71 Hannah Craig has a tall assignment to begin with on Saturday in Toronto at the Canadian Open, a silver status, $96,250, 24-player event.
The Irish No.1 has been drawn against Torrie Malik, the PSA No.42 from England, with the tournament’s second seed and PSA No.7, Tinne Gillis of Belgium, awaiting the winner in round two.
Craig, who achieved a career best No.61 ranking earlier this year before injury, has had just one outing so far this season on the circuit. That was a first-round loss at the Open Classic in New York on October 5th.
Meanwhile, Irish No.2 Breanne Flynn, the PSA No.118, is next on court on October 28th in Andorra.
This 24-player, $12K Challenger event will also feature Hannah McGugan, the PSA No.233, who is also due to feature at this week’s Swiss Open where her opening round opponent on Wednesday has yet to be confirmed.
Sam Buckley’s run to the semi-final at the Simply The Brest tournament in France has resulted in a massive bounce to his PSA ranking.
The former Irish Nationals champion was placed No.122 on the world list before last week’s event, but a bumper harvest of 96 rankings points has lifted him 13 places to No.109 – his highest ever position.
Buckley was in terrific form in Brest, where his three wins included his 3-1 elimination of the No.1 seed, Emyr Evans of Wales, who was the PSA No.69.
Even more ranking points could have been harvested as Buckley was most unfortunate to narrowly lose his semi-final 2-3 (11-13, 9-11, 11-3, 11-6, 7-11) to Edward Clain, the PSA No.82.
As it was, the 96 points credited to him, added to the 60 banked for reaching last month’s Helsinki Challenger quarter-finals, lifted him to a career-high ranking that he will now look to build on in Canada and the Czech Republic.
Buckley has been drawn to play the No.81, Matthew Lai of Hong Kong China, in the opening round of the Richardson Wealth Open in Vancouver on October 15th, while the No.94, Aly Hussein of Eqypt, will be his opening round opponent in Brno on October 23rd at the Czech Open.
2025 Nationals champion Conor Moran only had a one-place lift in the rankings this week after his campaign in Brest ended with a 2-3 defeat to Brice Nicolas, the No.83 from France.
However, his move up to No.147 still represented a career high in a super season where his next adventure – the Swiss Open in Zurich – is scheduled to begin with an opening round match on October 22nd against Lwamba Chileshe, the No.126 New Zealand-based player from Zambia.
Moran had arrived in France fresh from his Stourbridge Open title win in England, which lifted him 10 places in the rankings.
Switching to the women’s PSA circuit, the new season opener for No.71 Hannah Craig ended in a hard-fought 2-3 opening round defeat to the No.70, Alexandra Haydon of Australia, at the Open Classic in New York.
Craig’s PSA schedule next has her drawn against Torrie Malik, the No.42 from England, at the Canadian Open in Toronto on October 25th.
Breanne Flynn, the No.115-ranked player, has been paired against Ruqayya Salem, the No.199 from Egypt, in the opening round of the PSA Challenger 12 Pierre and Vacance in Andorra on October 28th.
She is also due to face Lauren Baltayan, the No.72 from France, in the opening round at the Monte Carlo Classic on November 10th.
Ireland’s top two men’s players definitely caught the eye at the Simply The Brest tournament in France on Thursday: Sam Buckley eliminated the top-seeded Emyr Evans 3-1, and Conor Moran produced a battling performance in his hard-fought 2-3 loss to No.4 seed Brice Nicolas.
Ranked 122 in the world, Buckley began his campaign on Wednesday with an easy 3-0 (11-1, 11-6, 11-2) win over French wildcard Arthur Moineau in 24 minutes.
However, he lit up the $12,000 event in Brest the following day with his show-stopping 64-minute victory over Evans, the PSA No.69 player.
You’d never have known 53 places separated these two players on the rankings, so solid was the level of potent squash produced by Buckley, who took control by winning the opening two games 11-9 and 12-10.
He slipped up in the third, going down 5-11, but that was just a blip in an overall terrific performance as he closed out the victory 11-5 in the fourth.
Buckley’s reward as a 9/16 seed is a Friday evening quarter-final against Louai Hafez, the Swiss player ranked No.161 in the world. That match has a 5pm Irish time start and can be watched on SQUASHTV Live Streaming on YouTube.
Unfortunately, the No.148-ranked Moran won’t be on the Friday schedule after his 111-minute, five-game thriller against the PSA No.83, Nicolas.
Crowned Stourbridge Open champion last Sunday in England, the unseeded Moran got his French show up and running on Wednesday with a 3-1 (12-10, 7-11, 11-5, 11-4) win over 9/16 seed Bailey Malik, the English player ranked No.176 on the PSA list.
That secured his round of 16 fixture with Nicolas, and Moran made light of the 65 places that separated them on the PSA rankings.
The opening two games were lost 11-13 and 9-11 but the breaks then went his way in the next two games, with a pair of 11-9 wins taking the match to the fifth.
There, Moran was brilliantly competitive once more, only to be cruelly squeezed out 9-11.
Irish duo Conor Moran and Sam Buckley will continue their search for points to move up the PSA men’s rankings on Wednesday in France.
Both Sutton players are entered to play in the round of 32 at the Simply the Brest PSA Challenger elimination event that runs until Sunday.
Fresh from last week’s Stourbridge Open title victory in England that shunted him up 10 places in the world rankings, 2025 Irish Nationals champion Moran is unseeded in France.
He is drawn to play the 9/16 seed Bailey Malik, the English player ranked No.176 on the PSA list.
At stake is a round of 16 fixture on Thursday against Brice Nicolas, the Brest No.4 seed, who is the PSA No.83.
Buckley, the PSA No.122, has been drawn against French wildcard Arthur Mouneau, with a round of 16 tie versus No.1 seed Emyr Evans, the PSA No.69 from Wales, awaiting the winner.
ROUND OF 32 FIXTURES
Conor Moran v Bailey Malik [9/16] – Wednesday, 12:45pm French time
Sam Buckley [9/16] v Arthur Moineau [WC] – Wednesday, 6:45pm French time
Conor Moran has jumped up 10 rankings places following his title win at the Stourbridge Open in England.
The 2025 Irish Nationals champion was listed No.158 when he arrived at the $3,000 PSA Challenger event but climbed to No.148 after a run of four wins, culminating in Sunday night’s final victory.
Seeded No.1 at the tournament, Moran was a comfortable 3-0 (11-3, 11-6, 11-4) winner in the decider against Caleb Boy, the English player ranked No.388.
He began his campaign with a 3-0 (11-3, 11-9, 11-4) win over England’s Ismail Khalil, the world’s No.820.
Moran then picked up respective 3-1 (8-11, 15-13, 11-7, 11-6 and 11-7, 6-11, 11-3, 11-4) wins over Abdallah Eissa, the No.288 from England, and Ayaan Vaziralli, the Indian ranked No.260 in his quarter and semi-final matches.
