Dublin April-May 2011

For the first time, I played a tournament in Dublin, which is where I used to live. It is my first tournament in 2011, my first full year living in Brighton.
My doubles partner is John Miller from Manchester, and believe it or not: we are seeded nr 1!
I am the nr 3 seeded player in D-singles. Here are the seedings in D-singles and D-doubles:

http://glta.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/seeds.aspx?id=8F48F154-050C-4B0B-BB73-7429B3F2FE16

I had a bye in the first Round, and in the 2nd Round I played against Thomas Heuer, my doubles partner in Dusseldorf in 2008.

In a very tough match, on the very slow and sandy artificial grass surface, I won 6-3, 6-7 (5-7 in the tie-break), 6-2. I even had 2 matchpoints in the 2nd set.





The results of matches were shown on a giant TV screen:

Early morning on the Sunday, John and I played our first match. That was because we had a bye in the 1st Round. So straight into the Quarter Finals.
Unfortunately, 1 of our opponents got injured in his singles match, so he had to be replaced. But unfortunately for John and me, the replacement was a C-player. He proved way too good for us, but especially in the first set, we played really well. We lost in the end with 6-7 (after having had a setpoint!), 1-6.

From left to right: John, myself, Ronan and Tom. Ronan & Tom actually lost in the next round in 3 sets.

In my singles Quarter Final, I played against local Dubliner Shaun. Both of us not only battled against each other, but also against the hard wind.
Below are a few photos taken by John, my doubles partner:

Stretching to hit a service return back.



Always time for a smile.

A not-so-elegant service.....

This is how bad the wind was:

This photo was taken by the official tournament photographer, by the way.

In the end I lost 3-6, 3-6. Shaun was the better player.
A real shame, because in the 2nd set I was making a come back after 0-4 down, but on 3-5 at 30 all, I served my first double fault of the match that gave Shaun a matchpoint.....

Shaun made it to the final, as he beat Joan Valdosera in the Semi-Final, so not such a big shame after all.


The player's banquet was quite exclusive, as it was held in the beautiful historic Mansion House, which now hosts the Fire Restaurant, but was the place where the very first Irish parliament met for the first time after having become independent from England.

Here are the results for D-Singles and D-Doubles:

http://glta.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/draw.aspx?id=8F48F154-050C-4B0B-BB73-7429B3F2FE16&draw=8

http://glta.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/draw.aspx?id=8F48F154-050C-4B0B-BB73-7429B3F2FE16&draw=9



And an overview of my matches:

http://glta.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/player.aspx?id=8F48F154-050C-4B0B-BB73-7429B3F2FE16&player=15



Last but not least, I would like to thank Adrian, Brian, Zul and John for taking the pictures and videos.
John, also thanks for the great doubles' partnership.
Frank and your team, thanks for a great tournament and congratulations on a very smooth and successful organisation and running of it.