Susannah wins Blue Riband Event - 02/08/2008

Susannah winsCastlebar

Susannah Hughes Jordan became the first Fermanagh tennis player to win an u18 singles title at The Tesco Ulster Junior Open held at the Belfast Boat Club last Saturday.

The Ulster Junior is the most prestigious tournament in the Ulster tennis calendar and attracts competitors from all over Ireland. Over four hundred juniors participated in the various boys and girls age groups in a number of events played on the twelve courts at the Boat Club and the five outside courts of Windsor Lawn Tennis Club. Susannah progressed steadily through the draw of the u18 Girls singles defeating the nos 2 and 3 seeds Elizabeth Murphy and Rebecca Brown respectively on her path to the final where she met Downshire’s Katherine Mills.

Susannah quickly established a 3/0 lead before Katherine fought back to square the match at 3/3. Regaining her focus, Susannah reeled off the next four games to take the first set 6/3 and position herself with a 1/0 lead in the second. Katherine , determined to make a good start to the second set, rallied to square at 1/1 . The next few games went with serve, until at 3/2 Susannah broke Katherine’s serve and took control of the proceedings to finish off the match without further loss.

The final score 6/3 6/2 does not totally reflect the competitiveness of the encounter as each girl strove to take the ultimate prize in Ulster Tennis.

The Ulster Junior Open has been held at the Belfast Boat Club since 1949 and the winners of the Boys and Girls U18 singles have their names engraved in gold lettering on a mounted oak panel in the club’s pavilion. The Roll of Honour includes luminaries from the Ulster Tennis fraternity past and present and now will be updated in the near future to feature ELTC junior Susannah Hughes Jordan who at 14 years of age also becomes the second youngest player to win the Blue Riband event.

Claire Curran, who recently retired from professional tennis in a career that saw her featuring at Wimbledon, holds the honour of youngest ever winner of the event at the tender age of 13. ELTC continues to foster junior tennis in Fermanagh through its support of local youngsters under the tutelage of coach Matthew McGann and it hoped that some of the aforementioned will emulate Susannah in the years to come.