Cork Tennis Blog

Welcome to the Cork Tennis Blog.

This blog will keep you up to date on the tennis scene in Cork, both socially and competitively. Whether you are new to the game or an experienced player I hope you find the information and posts here, useful and interesting.

You can contact me by email at rob@racketrestringing.ie

Rob's Racketrestringing

Saturday, April 30, 2011

South of Ireland Open Veterans Championship 2011

The South of Ireland Veterans Open Championship 2011 or as they refer to it in Limerick, The South, is on this weekend in Limerick Lawn Tennis Club and looking through the draws there should be some top quality tennis on display for the weekend.

Cork players travel in force and are well represented across all age groups, so expectations are high for a few title holders to return to the Rebel county tomorrow evening.

Some events to watch out for are the Mens O-45 singles where Joe Donovan of Lakewood will renew battle with two travelling interpros, Ray McGinley of Leinster and Tim Blomley of Ulster.
These three squared off recently in Sundays Well and Joe came out on top, we hope the result will be the same at the end of the weekend.

The Mens O-50 doubles looks to be another promising event with strong partnerships throughout the draw, with Cork pairings holding the first and fourth seeding.

Best of luck to all involved and keep up to date on the latest happenings here.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Babolat Cork Tennis League Underway

For those early birds who got their entries in for the Babolat Cork tennis league prior to Rushbrooke, the points have started to build up.

Remember you can enter at any stage, but results cannot be back dated.
For more information on the league, just click here.

The table to date:
Tim Ryan - 13 points
James Cooney - 3 points
Trish O Leary - 3 points.

Bishopstown Senior Doubles next up.

Now that the appetite has being wet after Rushbrooke, the circuit moves on to Bishopstown.

This is a doubles only tournament and always attracts a big entry of a very high standard.
The tournament runs from the 1st to the 8th of May and you can keep to date with the scores and schedule here.

The tournament promises to provide some very entertaining matches so why not drop in and be entertained.

Coveney Cleans up at Rushbrooke

Rushbrooke Easter open finished yesterday and after some very hard fought finals the season has started well for all our winners.

None more so than Niamh Coveney who made the perfect start to the season with a hat trick of titles.
Niamh was made to battle hard in her singles where she came from behind to beat one of the new up and coming brigade, Siobhan Ryan Bovey and eventually won in 3 sets.

Again in the ladies doubles,  Niamh teamed up with Tracey O Rourke and it took the pair 3 sets to overcome another two of the future stars, Rachel Daly and Nicola Drummy in what was a very entertaining match.

To finish off her hat trick, Niamh teamed up with the Mens singles winner Paul Fitzgerald to win the mixed doubles title.

As can be seen from the results below there were no easy finals and from speaking to some of the people who watched the finals, all matches proved to be very entertaining.  This bodes well for the season ahead if the standard of the finals in the first tournament of the year was this high.

A special mention has to go to the tournament organiser, Martin Cusack and his team for running a very successful tournament.  His organisational skills received numerous compliments over the weekend and his easy going nature in the office made for a very enjoyable tournament.

Results:
MS1 - Paul Fitzgerald V Jamie Blake 6/1 6/1
WS1 - Niamh Coveney V Siobhan Ryan Bovey 4/6 6/1 6/3
MD1 - Cian and Jamie Blake V Kevin Rea/Paul Fitzgerald 2/6 7/5 7/5
WD1 - Niamh Coveney/Tracey O Rourke V Rachel Daly/Nicola Drummy 7/5 3/6 6/3
MX1 - Niamh Coveney/Paul Fitzgerald V Siobhan Ryan Bovey/Cian Blake 6/3 6/4
MD2 - Aylmer Barrett/Killian O Brien V Ger Finan/Silvio Di Blasi 4/6 6/3 6/2
MX2 - Joanna and Mark O Riordan V Aine Kiernan/Kevin O Keeffe 6/2 5/7 6/3
MD3 - Jim Connolly/Jonathon Mulcahy V Kevin McCarthy/Kevin Moynihan 7/6 6/2
WD3 - Carol Daly/Kay Lynch V Marion Gargin/Suzanne Hayes 6/3 6/2
MX3 - Carol Daly/Niall Ahern V Louise Davidson/Kieran Hackett 6/2 7/5
MD4 - Peter Howie/Tim Ryan V Rob Jenkins/Leo O Leary 7/6 7/5
WD4 - Margaret Roche/Nime Stefansson V Deirdre Duboy/Susan O Donovan 7/5 6/0
MX4 - Sheila McCarthy/Tim Ryan V Trish O Leary/James Cooney 2/6 6/3 7/5
MD5 - Ross McDonald/Padraig Mullane V Noel Devitt/Willie Fawsitt 6/3 6/3
WD5 - Dolores McCarthy/Breege O Reilly V Ursula Hogan/Jacqui O Mahony 6/2 6/1
MX5 - Fabiola Schnier/Padraig Mullane V Sheila Healy/Kevin Day 6/2 6/2
MD6 - Darren Fitzgerald/Brian Hennessy V Alan Preston/Brian Stromsoe 6/4 7/5
WD6 - Rhea Monkhouse/Ger O Callaghan V Tina Bushe/Linda St Ledger 3/6 6/3 6/1
MX6 - Rhea Monkhouse/Scott Weaver V Una O Callaghan/Alan Preston 7/6 6/4

Congratulations to all the winners and best of luck to everyone for the rest of the season.

Friday, April 22, 2011

FDC South of Ireland Omni Court Championship 2011

The first Senior Open of the year is underway at Rushbrooke Tennis Club.  This is a very popular tournament and always attracts a big entry and this year is no different.

With a weekend that promises to provide beautiful sunshine, this could be the place to be to sit back, relax and enjoy some very entertaining matches.

You can keep up to date with scores and schedules here but if you get the chance pop down and enjoy the atmosphere and banter that goes with it.

Sundays Well - Munster Vets Open 2011



The Munster Open Vets tournament was on last weekend in Sundays Well Tennis Club and as always it attracted a large entry, of a high standard, with players coming from all over Ireland.

The finals were played in glorious sunshine and the matches were equal to the weather.

The results can be found by clicking here.

The photos for this event were supplied by James Reidy, many thanks James.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Draws now available for Sundays Well Vets Open

Sundays Well Vets Open is one of the big Vets events on the Irish calender and it starts this Thursday.

Draws and schedules are available here and you can keep up to date on all the happenings over the weekend.

Enter Rushbrooke Easter Open here.

I hope you have all being practicing because the first Senior Open of the season is only a week away.
Entries are now being taken for Rushbrooke Easter Open and you can enter here.

This tournament is a graded tournament with an open singles event and graded doubles event.  It always attracts a large entry and you will be guaranteed some very enjoyable tennis.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Babolat Cork Tennis League - Don't miss out!


The first counting tournament is fast approaching for the Babolat Cork Tennis League.

What you don't want to happen is that you win the tournament and find the points don't count because you haven't registered.

For all the details on how to enter click here

Don't miss out on your chance to win rackets, clothing, footwear and a bag.

Friday, April 8, 2011

Emily Daly, top of the pile.

Congratulations to Emily on a fabulous achievement last weekend, where she won the Girls U-14 National Matchplays Title.

This was a great achievement and one that was fully deserved.

During the course of the weekend Emily played some outstanding matches and had to take on the top seed along the way.

In the finals not only did Emily have to overcome a very difficult opponent but she also had to deal with blisters, but this girl is a fighter and wasn't going to let anything come in the way of a National Title.

If you haven't seen Emily play yet you are missing out.  I have seen her play many times and as talented as she is what I love most about watching her play is , she plays with a smile on her face.
She looks as though she is enjoying the game.

From what I have seen over the last few years, watching many ITF and ETA events and even local junior opens everyone seems to have gotten so serious.  They play with the weight of the world on their shoulders and seem to be missing out on the enjoyment of the game.

Emily keep smiling and I bet you will keep winning.
Well done to Emily, National Champion.

Winter League Finals this weekend.

Rushbrooke tennis club plays host to the Munster Branch Winter League finals this Sunday.

The finals will cover six grades from across the province, and promises to provide a very entertaining days tennis.

The atmosphere at the finals day is very different to finals days of open weeks because tennis is such an individual event.
It is in these team events that players find they have an extra level to their game.  This is because you are now playing for your team, your club and you don't want to disappoint.

This is something Djokovic has credited for his recent run of good form.  By helping Serbia win the Davis Cup following some amazing games, where he had to dig deep, he found a believe in himself and his game to realise he can win no matter who the opponent.

Now don't get carried away, I'm not comparing any of you to Djokovic, but within everybody is another level if you really believe and hopefully some of you find it this weekend.

Enjoy the finals and good luck to all the teams involved.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

The String Thing - Coming soon to Maher Sports.




Fed up with having to move your strings back into place? Watch this!