Susannah No2 in Ulster - 1/3/2008

Enniskillen Lawn Tennis Club hosted the Girls Under 16 Ulster Matchplays last weekend. Inspired by playing on her home turf Susannah Hughes Jordan achieved her highest Ulster ranking second only to Belfast Boat Club’s Elizabeth Murphy. Elizabeth is presently also ranked number one in Ireland and this gives some indication of the strength of the field assembled in Enniskillen for a series of highly competitive matches.

There were three slots available for the young Ulster girls to qualify for the National Match-plays to be contested at The Sutton Club in Dublin the first weekend in April. Susannah had to overcome Interpro colleague Shannon Andrews in a high quality contest to reach the final. Shannon had beaten Susannah narrowly in their last two meetings and was very much the favourite to progress. However Susannah totally at home on the ELTC courts won 6/3 6/4.

In the final she played Elizabeth Murphy for the number one spot. The contest was hard fought and Susannah played some superb tennis hitting many sensational backcourt winners. However the Irish number one managed to live up to her status and won the contest 6/4 6/4.

Shannon managed to clinch third spot by defeating Omagh’s Nicola Hawkes 6/4 6/4. Travelling players and parents were most impressed with the facilities provided by ELTC and it is to hoped that more of these events will be held outside Belfast in the future.