[btwntennis]

Niamh Coveney is just an amazing tennis player! She is so gifted for someone who "only plays college tennis" !!

[MLF]

I haven't read the thread recently and apologies if this is known, but if not I thought I'd share the news that my friend, Kelly Liggan ( Ireland's top female player for many, many years ) has finally called it a day - she just got too tired fighting the injuries.

[Ferg]

Aww, poor Kelly. What a pity, but she was great for Irish tennis.


Niland is in the semi's of the 50K too, he'll be up to maybe #250 - #240 next week. Unless he wins his semi of course!

[cn ireland]

Not surprised about Kelly's retirement!

I wish her all the best in her post tennis life!

[Cat in the hat]

Thanks MLF for letting us know, all the best in whatever she does next.
Anyone going to the DC tie in Dublin next month? I am, looking forward to us hopefully beating Turkey

[Tipp]

I'm gonna try, depending on how the funds are and whether or not I can make it to Dublin for the weekend.

That's a shame about Kelly, although I had kind of guessed it from her long spell of inactivity. She did great work over the years and it's a pity she never got any real attention, her career high is higher than any Irish man has attained. Maybe she could coach some girls in Ireland now? (Although I think she lives in Marbella)

Conor was beaten by the top seed in the semis in Russia today, 6-4 in the third. Still a good week.

[Stevecw]

Originally Posted by Cat in the hat

Thanks MLF for letting us know, all the best in whatever she does next.
Anyone going to the DC tie in Dublin next month? I am, looking forward to us hopefully beating Turkey

What dates is that tie on? I'm back in Dublin these days, so might head along.

[Cat in the hat]

it's 5-7th of march but you'd need to get skates on to get tickets as selling out. Try tennisireland website

[Stevecw]

Originally Posted by Cat in the hat

it's 5-7th of march but you'd need to get skates on to get tickets as selling out. Try tennisireland website

Ok heading to that site right now! Good to see a big demand for tickets

[KournikovaFan91]

Awe Kelly, I kinda had the feeling she would retire

[polly]

Tramore Tennis Club Presentation to Sinead Lohan on February 3rd

Following the fundraising tennis day organised by Willie Reynolds, Tramore tennis club coach, a presentation was made to Sinead Lohan in acknowledgement of her upcoming participation in the European Tennis tour.

The presentation was made at Tramore Tennis Club by John Crawford of John Crawford Scaffolding Ltd on February 3rd 2010. Special thanks to John for his kind sponsorship of the event, and for his support of Sinead over the year. Special thanks also to Willie for organising the fundraising day and Tramore tennis club for hosting the event which took place on October 31st and November 1st 2009.

The pictures in the photo gallery show Willie Reynolds, John Crawford, and Tom Finnegan, Vice President Tramore Tennis Club making the presentation to Sinead.

Hard luck to Sinead for losing her second round of the qualifying in Copenhagen this week, and also hard luck to Grainne O'Neill for losing out in the first round. But best of luck to Grainne and Sinead in the girls doubles today.

A Big congrats to Laura Reid from Northern Ireland who won the girls under 12 Scottish Indoors in Glasgow at the weekend, Laura beat the number one seed Sophie Dodds 75 62

Also well done to Emily Madill who won her first round match this week in a grade 4 event in the Netherlands, best of luck to Emily in the next round.

[polly]

Here is another article about Sinead Lohan in today's Irish Independent:


In brief: Lohan shows true potential
Tennis


Wednesday February 17 2010

PROMISING young Tramore player Sinead Lohan took another positive step in her tennis education when coming up trumps in her opening match in the ITF U-18 event in Copenhagen.

Lohan (15) ended the title hopes of Sweden's Viktoria Matejevic on a 6-3 6-4 scoreline, in the first round of qualifying in the girls' singles.

Today, Lohan, who won the National Indoors U-18 title after Christmas, takes on Greece's No 4 seed Tina Papaoikonomou.

Lohan's National Indoors final victim Grainne O'Neill is also taking part in the Danish event, but her world ranking position has earned her a place in the main draw.

[KournikovaFan91]

She lost to the Greek in 3.

But good to see her winning from the start on the ITF.

[polly]

Barry won't let Leaving Cert hamper bid for top-20 ranking

By Paddy Hickey

Thursday February 18 2010

TEENAGE ace Sam Barry will press on with his dream of surging up the ITF U-18 world rankings, despite having to sit his Leaving Certificate this year.

Barry will be placing a major emphasis on his studies over the next four months, but the 17-year-old from Limerick still plans to take part in a number of ITF tournaments before his exams in June.

Between academic work and tennis practice and tournaments, Barry, who reached the second round of last month's Australian Junior Open, is set to find himself under a considerable amount of pressure until late June.

However, a major plus in this regard for 81-ranked Barry, who trains full-time at the National Tennis Centre in DCU, is that he does not attend a school. Instead, he receives tuition in his spare time at the weekends, back in Limerick.

"Having to sit the Leaving Certificate this year complicates things for me," explained Barry, who spent two years at a tennis academy in Paris from 2006-08.

"But after giving the matter some thought, I've decided that I won't take a break from competing on the ITF circuit. It's my last year at U-18 level, and I want to get to my best possible ranking before December.

"If I took a few months off, I would miss the chance of winning a lot of ranking points, and it would take me a bit of a time to get back my fitness and sharpness.

"My goal for some time has been to make the world top 20 by this summer, and if I achieve that, it would be the ideal springboard for the rest of the year."

It's a telling indication of Barry's commitment to his tennis career that 36 hours after he returned home from Australia, he was on his way to Tunisia for two tournaments, reaching the quarter-finals in each.

Barry is planning to play on the ITF adult schedule next year and wants to play some senior tournaments this year.

"It would be very good preparation for next year to have a number of adult tournaments under my belt," he said. "So, for the rest of the year, I plan to play in a mixture of junior and adult tournaments."

Meanwhile, Conor Niland has improved 31 places in the ATP singles world rankings to No 246 after reaching the semi-finals of last week's ATP Challenger Tour event in Kazan, Russia.

Last weekend, the Limerick man reached the second round of qualifying for the Marseille Open -- his second top-tier ATP World Tour event this year.

On the local scene, the AGM of the Leinster Boys' Schools Tennis Union takes place in St Conleth's College, Clyde Road, Ballsbridge, Dublin 4 on Tuesday at 7.30.

[Tennis-Chick]

Great win for Conor yesterday 2-0