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Irish
Junior Open 2008
28-30 Nov, Galway |
Two New Champions in Galway
Edwin Brennan reports
The 2008 IACT Irish Junior Open was held in Galway Lawn Tennis Club
over the weekend. The event was a huge success with 130 entries from
right across Europe and beyond. After a weekend of hard fought
matches 2 mew U-19 champions were crowned.
In the U-19 boys section, last years U-17 champion, Robert Downer
came through a gruelling 5 set quater-final match against fellow
country man Charlie Wyatt he faced young Irish man Joey Roberts in
the semi-final. Downer was in control of this match from the start
and cruised through to the final. His opponent in the final was
another English man Ben Rodgers, the number 2 seed defeated Alberto
Perez-Pomares of Spain to claim his spot on the final. The final was
a closely contested match with both players anxious to get off to a
good start. It was Downer who controlled the match from the off and
he went on to claim the Irish title 3-0.
In the U-19 girls section, the U-15 champion of 2006 was out to add
another Irish title to her collection. Millie Tomlinson, the 16 year
old England star was in fantastic form throughout the weekend only
dropping one game on her way to victory. Her semi-final opponent was
Canadian girls Erin Roberts playing in her first ESF event since
moving to Pontefract to train. Tomlinson proved to strong for her
opponent and claimed her spot in the final winning 3-0. Her opponent
was the number 2 seed Milou van der Heijden from the Netherlands.
She was looking to make up for last years defeat in the final. She
defeated Irish girl Sarah Corcoran in the semi-final 3-0 before
moving on to face Tomlinson in the final. It was Tomlinson who got
the best of the early points racing to a 2-0 lead before van der
Heijden rallied herself in the third game taking it 11-5, however
Tomlinson played some fantastic squash in the forth game to take the
match and the Irish title 3-1.
The weekend itself was an outstanding success. The highlight of the
weekend was definitely the table-quiz on the Saturday night where
all the players and parents gathered for what was a brilliant night.
There was not one complaint all weekend and the event could not have
gone any better. From an organisers point of view it was the perfect
tournament. Here’s to 2009!
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Full Draws
& Results
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Boys U-19 Final
Robert Downer bt Ben Rodgers
11-5 11-5 11-4
Girls U-19 Final
Millie Tomlinson bt Milou Van der Heijden
11-7 11-9 5-11 12-10
Boys U-19 Semis:
Robert Downer bt Joey Roberts
11-1 11-4 11-9
Ben Rodgers bt Alberto Perez Pomares
11-6 11-3 11-6
Girls U-19 Semis:
Millie Tomlinson bt Erin Roberts
11-4 11-2 11-5
Milou Van der Heijden bt Sarah Corcoran
11-3 11-7 11-8
Boys U-19 Quarter-finals:
Robert Downer bt Charlie Wyatt
11-3 11-9 9-11 9-11 14-12
Joey Roberts bt Dominic Lyons
11-8 11-7 11-9
Alberto Perez Pomares bt Sam Allan
12-10 12-10 11-4
Ben Rodgers bt Neil Martin
11-3 11-2 11-8
Girls U-19 Quarter-finals:
Millie Tomlinson Sarah Murphy
11-3 11-5 11-2
Erin Roberts Niamh O’Hare
11-8 10-12 10-12 11-3 12-10
Sarah Corcoran bt Gabriella McMillan
11-8 11-5 11-4
Milou Van der Heijden bt Amanda Akesson 11-4 11-6
11-5 |
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