Best wins first pro squash tournament

By Morissa Lindsay

Barbados’ squash sensation Meagan Best won her first ever Professional Squash Association (PSA) tournament yesterday against Nikki Shemirani representing host country Canada at the 2022 Women’s NexGen Satellite Singles event.

Now in her third year at the University of Virginia (UVA) where she is coached by Mark Allen, Best won the final 3-0 against Shemirani who is originally from Tehran but represents Canada.

During an interview with Barbados Today, Best explained that she was encouraged to play in the PSA tournament by two of her UVA schoolmates and after much consideration she decided to take on the challenge which for her was a great opportunity to work on her game.

“I felt as if I was in a position to play this tournament since September and I continued my work with my fitness trainer at home, continuing his program up here and also training with my coach at school as well. So, it just felt perfect as a tournament that I could have done at the end of the year and I am happy I came up with the win.”

“This is a tournament where players try to get points to get higher up in the ranks but I would say all the matches were pretty straightforward, I just had to stay disciplined on my game plan and what I set out to do. The final was definitely a good tester to the work and training I have been doing. I ended up winning the final in three as well, so thankfully it was pretty straightforward and I am just happy that I was able to remain disciplined and pull through,” Best said.

During the final yesterday, Best used several boast shots as part of her strategy to keep her Canadian opponent Shemirani moving around the court. It was an effective plan given that Shemirani who enjoys being in position while on attack was forced to move back and forth quickly while defending which consumed a lot of her energy.

Sharing her views on the match, the Bajan top player stated, “I heard Nikki Shemirani is like a top ranked player in Canada and she is originally from Tehran and typically those players are on the aggressive side. So, it was definitely a very aggressive match playing in the final which worked in my favour because I play aggressively as well and I like that.

“She made some errors throughout the match which obviously worked in my favour and I was given the confidence to continue winning points from there. I think that I was able to keep the lead on her all the time and just used my experience to remain focused and do what I had to do.”

Besides winning this PSA tournament, the two-time Caribbean champion also represented Barbados at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham which was her second outing at that level. She is also the number one player at UVA amongst the females and has her sights set on playing a lot more tournaments going into 2023.

Sharing her plans for 2023, Best said, “I am happy to play this tournament as well as Commonwealth and just getting that higher level of training which I don’t usually get, so I was happy to get that and this year has charted a path for me to see what I can accomplish in the future. So, I definitely was able to see that coming out of this year for sure.

“So, for next year we have the nationals for colleges, the teams as well as the individual tournaments and a bunch of girls who actually play in college are in the top 30 in the world. My goal is to have a top four finish in the nation, which would be pretty cool.”
morissalindsay@barbadostoday.bb