Newry Tennis Club

The tournament totally came to life today with some sizzling matches for the spectators to enjoy and the players to endure! The McAteer family have asked that the 2 Malachys are known as Malachy Patrick and Malachy Gerard but nobody knows who is who! I was thinking more Mal G or Mal P or even Ali G or Mally P! But no matter we call them, they both had a great day. Mal P had his best singles result for a few years as he dispatched Gerry in straight sets using a more powerful serve (probably due to the protein shakes) and ultra consistent groundies. The other Malachy also comfortably went through in the Cup comp for the loss of just one game against Cormac. In the Plate event we had an exciting 3 setter with former champ Alex outlasting Cian. Credit to Cian who gives tremendous effort in every point and does love to run round to hit his left handed forehand. Well done Cian and we must have that tattoo quoted at some stage here! As for Alex, a much under rated player who consistently gains results. In the best match of the champs so far Gary H and Brian went toe to toe for 3 hours. It went to a final set champions tiebreak after two long and tense sets. Brian tried to highball topspin Gary whilst Gary was using cross court short angles against Brian in enthralling rallies. It was exhausting to watch never mind play in so both Gary and Brian did amazing.  Brian was even showing off his his legs at the crowd today! And to end the day we had a Mixed that turned on its head from 61 first set to Pat and Deirdre to a couple of hours later when Marie and James came back to take it on a final set tiebreak. Marie was outstanding at the net and had the guts to close out the last 2 crucial points for victory and we have our first finalists. Bad luck to Pat and Deirdre who gave it their all. As for the O’Hare brothers, mixed fortunes for them as their partners watched the entire long matches!