Swede dreams are made of this, says squash ace John

Player scoops Nordic title

John Meehan, a member of Strathgryffe Tennis and Squash club won his first European Junior Squash title, taking the Boys Under 17 Nordic Junior Open held in Malmo, Sweden.

John was seeded 9/16 for the event which earned him a first round bye.

In the second round he defeated a local Swedish junior 3–0 setting up a difficult third round tie against the Irish number two seed Alex Smith, who is ranked seventh in Europe.

Meehan won this match 3-1 taking him to the quarter finals where he played a Frenchman who he defeated 3-0 setting up a semi- final against a 3/ 4 seeded Czech player Karim Farrag.

Another 3-1 win, which was watched on a live stream by many Strathgryffe members, saw Meehan move into his first European tour final where he was to meet the U17 top ranked junior in Europe and number one seed, another Czech player Marek Panacek.

The final was again streamed live so Strathgryffe squash players were able to see Meehan in action as he attempted to bring a European squash title to Houston for the first time.

He raced through the first game winning 11-2, the second game was a little closer but again Meehan was always in control and took this 11-7.

The third game was a much tighter affair as John’s opponent put everything into a game he had to win to stay in the match.

But despite the best efforts of his opponent John had enough in the tank to take the third game 11-9 and with it his first European title.

Not one to rest on his laurels, the day after winning in Malmo, Meehan was back on court in Houston passing on his skills as he took a squash camp for the next generation of Strathgryffe juniors.