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 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.
