There were victories for two Irishmen in the final round of qualifying for the FBD Men's Irish Open, with Bjorn Thomson and Brendan Dempsey both progressing.
Thomson, a talented 16-year-old who is currently based in Birmingham but originally from Limerick, had a very impressive 6-3 6-4 win against Britain’s Edward Seator. Seator, who has won ITF Pro Circuit titles in the past, fought valiantly but ultimately could not match Thomson’s accuracy and consistency.
Thomson, who is Ireland’s top ranked junior, came into the tournament in some form, having beaten a player ranked 17th in the world in juniors, in an ITF junior event last month. He will now be hoping to earn his first world ranking point at senior level tomorrow.
Dempsey was equally impressive in his 6-0 6-2 dismantling of Britain’s Rowan Isaaks. The Dubliner, who is about to begin his final year of a tennis scholarship at Gardner-Webb university in North Carolina, looked untroubled throughout, as his all round game proved too much for his opponent. The performance was particularly impressive as Dempsey had spent much of the weekend suffering from a vomiting bug.
Today also saw the release of the tournament’s main draws and a number of notable matches are scheduled for tomorrow. These include David O’Hare’s match against the tournament’s fourth seed Yannick Jankovits. This match will mark O’Hare’s first match as a professional on home soil, after recently completing a stellar collegiate career at the University of Memphis.
O’Hare will be followed onto court by perhaps the pick of the first round matches, which will see Limerick man Sam Barry, the tournament’s number one seed, take on Peter Bothwell from Co Down. Bothwell comes into the match on the back of a career best performance last week in the UK where he won four ITF pro-circuit matches in a row and obtained his first ever world ranking point.
Elsewhere, former Wimbledon doubles champion Frederik Nilsen is also in action in both singles and doubles. The Dane will open his account against Sweden’s Stefan Borg in the morning, before teaming up with his British partner Ed Corrie to face the all German pair of Christian Hirschmueller and Denis Kapric.
Play begins at 10am in Fitzwilliam LTC and will last until well into the evening. Admission is free throughout the week.
