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.
