An ever increasing number of juniors from Enniskillen Tennis Club are now participating in tournaments throughout Ireland during the summer months.
Sarah Cousins took part in several tournaments at U16 level. Despite it being her first year in this age group she played many of the national events in the Dublin area and made two finals at the Dublin events. At a key event at Donnybrook in Dublin Sarah beat Emma Prehn, Lisa Lyons and Laura Noble to progress to the final and justify her No 2 seeding. However, the final saw the number one seed Caragh Courtney win in straight sets. Sarah won through to the final of the Ulster Junior Hardcourt finals at CIYMS in Belfast and the Shankill Junior Open in Dublin but was beaten by her old rival Amy Rothwell. Sarah finished her season in some style at the County Londonderry senior championships hosted at Limavady. She was defending her singles title there and won it again in convincing fashion with a 6/1 6/1 win against Donna McSorley in the final. She went on to win the mixed doubles with her coach Matthew McGann.
Ronan McKeever having won the U16 Boys Singles at Castlebar early in the summer progressed well in many tournaments. He lost to Stephen O’Boyle 7-5 6-3 in the quarter finals in CIYMS Hardcourt Championships. At the main junior event in Northern Ireland at the Belfast Boat Club, he beat the No3 seed Jordan McKeown (Bangor) on the way but eventually lost out to Matthew Robinson (Ballymena) in the semi-finals. In the U18 Boys Singles, Daire Dillon progressed to the final of the Tyrone Junior Open just losing out to Thomas Muldoon of Lurgan.
Matthew Duffy fresh from a tennis excursion to America, was somewhat unlucky to lose to the No 2 seed Benjamin Cree in CIYMS Hardcourt Championships 6-7 1-6 in the quarter finals of U18 boys singles. He did well to get through the qualifiers in the Belfast Boat Club but lost out in an even tighter match to Benjamin Cree 4-6 7-5 6-7. In the U18 boys doubles at Carrickmines in Dublin, Matthew teamed up with Sean Quinlan to progress to the final beating the No 2 seeds Dorian Kos and Maxim Mozola before losing out to the No 1 seeds.
Eimear Smyth enjoyed a good summer culminating in success in the U14 Girls Singles at the Belfast Hardcourt Championships. Eimear’s successful season was acknowledged by means of selection to play for Ulster at the U14 Interprovicial matchplay event hosted at Castlebar. Ulster beat Munster 4-2 and beat Connaught 4-2. Eimear and her partner were the successful pair when they played Leinster winning their doubles match. With very tight matches Ulster ultimately lost to Leinster 5-1. It was a great display of Ulster tennis.
In the U16 Boys Singles at the Leinster Junior Open at Lansdowne, Jared Monaghan progressed through the qualifiers to gain entry into the main draw. In a match to decide a place in the quarter finals, Jared was beaten by the eventual winner Sean O’Callaghan (Dublin). Jared joined Ronan McKeever, Matthew Duffy and Laura Griffin in the Irish Junior Open at Fitzwilliam in August. This is the biggest tournament in the junior calendar in Ireland. Both Laura and Ronan came through the qualifiers with Laura progressing to the last 16 before being knocked out by the No 8 seed Cora Moloney. Ronan put in some spirited performances before being put out by the No 3 seed Sean O’Callaghan. In an international tournament in Belfast , Ronan was narrowly beaten by Ulster No 1 Jakob Robb 7-5 in the deciding set and Laura was also narrowly beaten by Romanian Maria Savu over three sets.
The Irvinestown duo of Ryan Irvine and Kyran Maguire train with Enniskillen’s performance squad and they also achieved some fine results over the summer. Kyran reached the final of the U14 boys singles at Castlebar only to just lose out in a third set tie-break to the No1 seed from Dublin. Kyran also reached the final of the singles in the Co Louth Championships in Dundalk. Ryan was a shade unlucky losing out to Chris Proctor in the U16 Boys Singles at Windsor and narrowly missed out on a place in the final when beaten by the No 2 seed Niall Butler from Sligo in the West of Ireland Championships.
The children in the under 10s age group from Enniskillen had an unprecedented summer. Never before have we had so many take part in competition. They travelled far and wide too! We had 9 children competing in events in Enniskillen, Irvinestown, Omagh, Dunedin, Windsor, Boat Club Belfast and Dundalk. Although the emphasis in U10s is not on individual achievement, our youngsters regularly finished as some of the best performers. Due to the high quality of players coming through Enniskillen we are now starting our third performance squad so it is exciting times in the club. We look forward to seeing these players developing their skills and their love of the sport.
Coaches Matthew and Louise McGann were delighted with the participation of so many juniors from the club in competitions all over the country and are keen to resume all coaching activites in earnest over the winter months.
