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)
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.
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.
Sam Buckley’s hopes of reaching the Simply The Brest final on Sunday were dashed by a narrow 2-3 semi-final loss in France.
The PSA men’s No.122 came up against the No.82 Edward Clain and what unfolded on Saturday evening was a squash thriller in which Buckley outscored his opponent 49 points to 44 but still lost.
Buckley had opportunities to clinch both opening games, leading in each before losing out 11-13 and 9-11.
However, he came through in games three and four with commanding 11-3 and 11-6 scores, leaving everything to play for in game five.
That decider unluckily went the way of the French player 7-11, leaving him to progress to Sunday’s final against his fellow Frenchman Toufik Mekhalfi.
Buckley will now move on to the Richardson Wealth Open in Vancouver, starting with an October 15th match against No.79 Matthew Lai of Hong Kong China.
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
