North Kessock squash star reaches career high world ranking
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
Reaching a career-high world ranking was a bitter-sweet moment for squash player Greg Lobban, as he will not get the chance to go higher any time soon.
Squash announced last week that it was cancelling all events on the world tour until at least August, meaning the 27-year-old will stay at number 22 for the foreseeable.
But that is a source of positivity for the North Kessock player in amongst the current uncertainty, and he hopes to keep progressing up the rankings when play eventually resumes.
“It’s a weird situation to be fair, celebrating your ranking in a time like this,” Lobban said.
“You just don’t know when the tour is going to start again, but I got up to number 22 last month on the back of a good result at Canary Wharf in London where I beat the world number four.
“Reaching number 22 is great.
“My previous high was 26 in January.
“My aim at the beginning of this season was to finish in the top 20, which isn’t going to happen now because the season has been cut short by a few months.
“But being at number 22 now, it sets me up in a good position for when the tour does start again.”
Lobban is the top ranked Scottish player on the circuit, but still has aspirations of getting to a higher level on the global stage.
He seems to be on the way there, and he puts his recent rise up the rankings down to having more experience.
“Over the last two years, I have been working really hard and I thought I was a bit unlucky towards the end of last season not to close out a couple of close matches,” he recalled.
“In any sport, experience has a huge advantage to play, I’ve learned from those experiences and made sure that I see them out.
“There was one match last month in Chicago, I was 2–1 down and 10–4 down in the fourth game – so I was six match balls down – but I came back and won 3–2.
“In the past I would have let those matches go by. At the top level it’s really just those minuscule matches and moments in tournaments, it’s the small percentages that will get you across the line and get you higher up in the world.”
