Rising squash star Greg Lobban has shown he is adjusting well to life as a senior player with a series of impressive results.

The 19-year-old, from Inverness reached a career high No.4 in the European rankings in his final season as a Junior.

Since then, the Sport and Exercise Science student at Edinburgh Napier University won the opening two senior events of his career and reached the final of a third.

He said: “It’s definitely going well and if I’m being honest I didn’t expect to start as well as I have, but the results are giving me the confidence I can compete at the top level.

“At the last tournament, I came close to beating the Scotland No.2, who also happens to be my coach. I guess that’s not too bad as it means he gets to see first-hand how I’m progressing.

“Training with these guys all the time has really developed my game and I’ve just joined the professional circuit which means competing in events across Europe. I’m used to travelling from Inverness to Edinburgh a lot so the travelling won’t put me off."

In 2011, Greg represented Scotland at the World Junior Championships and was named Scottish Junior Player of the Year having won the Scottish U19 Championship. Now he has set his sights on cementing his senior status with the ultimate aim of selection for the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.

He said: “The support from Winning Students will help me with the costs of competing at different events as I look to build up my ranking. It means I am not holding back thinking I can’t afford to compete at certain events.

“There are lots of big competitions between now and the summer starting with the Scottish Senior Championships then the European Team Championships. I’ve had some recent international experience and I would love to be selected to compete for Scotland again.”

Greg works closely with national coach Roger Flynn and his assistant Stewart Crawford from the Scottish Squash Performance Centre on campus at Heriot-Watt University.

In December, Scotland faced Wales in a Senior B International, where Greg was joined by four other students supported by national student sports scholarships Winning Students.

World Tour player Kevin Moran, also at Edinburgh Napier University, University of Glasgow Anatomy student Mhairi Charlton and Ewen Urquhart from Heriot-Watt University were all in action, hoping to impress ahead of the European Teams Championships.

Also in December, Chris Leiper, from Robert Gordon University, joined Greg and Ewen in the Scotland U20 team at the International Youth Series in Wales, where Greg remained unbeaten and claimed the scalp of Welsh senior international David Haley.

The team photo, courtesy of Scottish Squash, shows the Scotland B International team, with Ewen Urquhart back row third from the left, Greg Lobban fourth from the left; Kevin Moran fourth from the right and Mhairi Charlton front row second from the right.