Junior tennis continues to thrive in Fermanagh with juniors from both Enniskillen and Irvinestown Tennis Clubs taking part in the recent provincial matchplays.
Last weekend, many juniors from Enniskillen featured prominently in the U14 and U16 matchplay competitions held at the Belfast Boat Club and Ward Park in Bangor.At Under 16 level, Matthew Duffy continues to make progress at the highest level with an exceptional performance against Lurgan’s Tom Muldoon winning 4-6, 6-3,14-12, the third set being a championship tiebreak. Two wins from four matches summarised Matthew’s day, a fine achievement at.this level. In the U16 girls singles, Alison Glass comfortably beat Morgan Hirst 6-2, 6-3.. She just lost out to Lucy Octave 4-6, 4-6 and Niamh Corr 5-7, 3-6. Alison is another who continues to make significant progress and is now enjoying the fruits of her hard work over the past twelve months.
The U14s saw representation from Ronan McKeever and Jared Monaghan. Ronan just lost out to Peter Maxwell 3-6, 6-4, 11-9. However, he did win two of his four matches beating Lurgan’s Marc Acum 6-3, 7-5 and David O’Neill in a three setter taking the tiebreak 10-8.
In the U14 girls singles, Sarah and Hannah Cousins and Laura Griffin represented Enniskillen. Hannah just lost out to Lydia Kelly 5-7, 6-4 8-10 in a marathon singles. Her first match however saw Hannah triumph against Chloe Lennox 6-3 6-3. Sarah Cousins won three of her four matches winning narrowly against both Amy Rothwell and Lydia Crawford in two three setters. However, Sarah only just failed to complete a four timer losing in a championship tiebreak to Eva O’Hagan but still finished 3rd overall, a very credible performance. Laura Griffin won two of her three matches, enjoying a good win over Chloe Lennox 6-2, 7-5. Laura’s only loss was against Nicole West 4-6 3-6 but regained her composure to take her third match against Emma Coulter in a championship tie break. Laura continues to progress and like many of the Fermanagh juniors is benefitting from matchplay experience at this level.
Irvinestown and Enniskillen Tennis Clubs were well represented at U12 level, with six juniors taking part in the matchplays at Ward Park, Bangor.
Irvinestown’s Kyran Maguire started well with a straight forward 6 / 2 6 / 2 win, while Conan Whitley (Irvinestown) overcame Bernard Mc Gettigan from Donegal 6 / 2 6 / 4 , Making his debut at this level Craig Humes (also of Irvinestown) played an excellent match before losing 7 -5, 6 – 4 to Caleb Rolston who finished 4th last time out, so it was a very creditable performance by Craig.
Their 2nd match on the day Kyran had a potential banana skin when he played Will Millar, Kyran lost the first set 4-6 and then proceeded to win the match 6 -2 10-5 and a place in the semi final .Conan’s next match saw him up against the no1 seed were he lost 6-2 6-4 but put up a stubborn resistance in the second set. Craig again had a good match but again with lack of expeirence and match play lost 6-4 7-5
Kyran lost his semi-final 6-4 6-3 but he still finished a very creditable 4th in Ulster and is still placed 2nd in the UTP rankings. Conan finished 7th overall and Craig finished just outside the top 10, but has gained invaluable experience from the weekend’s action.
The U12 girls saw Eimear Smyth (Enniskillen) play Zara Flack (Irvinestown) and what a match it turned out to be. Both girls played really well and the match was punctuated with some long rallies and attacking volleys. However on this occasion it was Eimear who eventually came out top with a 6 – 4 7 – 6 win to progress to the semi final. But Zara can take much encouragement from this match as she had only recently returned to competitive tennis. Dearbhla Dillon also from Enniskillen had a closely fought affair against Parveen Hariri with Parveen coming through 6-4 7-5. Dearbhla had also to play the top seed and lost 6 -2 6-2 to the eventual winner Mary Parkash who then beat Eimear 6-2, 6-2 in the semi final although once again Eimear played with admirable skill and determination throughout.
Next up Zara and Dearbhla played each other and with long rallies a regular feature of this match, Zara came out on top winning 6 – 3 6 – 3. Eimear narrowly lost her final match 5 -7 6- 7 against Megan Chambers to finish a creditable 4th overall. Zara then went on to win her final match 6-7 6-4 10-8 to finish 5th with Dearbhla finishing 7th with a final match that saw her play some fine attacking tennis finishing off many points at the net.
At the U 18 level, Frances Taggert (Irvinestown) won her first match 6-4 2-6 10-2. She then played the No 1 seed Karola Bejenaru but lost 3-6 2-6 in a match full of quality and considering Karola went on to win the event, it was no mean performance by Frances.
