Some 100 competitors battled it out over three days in the Connacht Open Tennis Championships.
Local players fared well with Marion Hanley from GLTC capturing the ladies’ singles title, defeating Marie-Louise O Callaghan (Limerick LTC ) 6-2 6-2. Combining with Lucy Penkova (Castlebar ) for the doubles event, Hanley added the title with a 6-3 6-0 victory over Claire and Gillian McCormack (Canon Hayes ). Penkova teamed up with Galway’s Neil McLoughlin in the mixed doubles, but they were beaten 6-7 6-1 6-1 by Aisling Towey and Philip King (Castlebar ).
Fergus O’Connell (Fitzwilliam ) beat Mike Johnston (Donnybrook ) to claim the men’s title by 6-2 6-2 and partnered Stephen Martin (Wicklow LTC ) to the doubles title with a 6-4 3-6 6-2 victory over Johnston and Jack Hughes (Naas ).
Mark Smyth, the-newly appointed tennis captain won the men’s A singles plate while Kristof Bulkowski of GLTC was runner-up to Dan Constantinescu (Ennis ) 6-4 7-6 in the men’s B final.
Former GLTC stalwart Philip Ryan (Limerick ) won the B plate, while Ivor Kushnir (GLTC ) defeated Marco Bruzzi (Mount Pleasant ) in the men’s C final. Mike Geraghty (GLTC ) and Rob Johnston (Loughrea ) defeated Declan Doran (Clontarf ) and Joe Hanley (Douglas ) to claim the men’s B doubles title by 7-6 6-1.
Stephanie Barry (Skerries )completed an impressive hat-trick, winning the ladies’ B singles 7-5 5-7 6-1, followed by plate victories with fellow Skerries players in the Ladies doubles plate and mixed doubles plate.
