Young Players Read This!

This is a link to a very interesting article written by Peter Farrell, Coaching Development Officer for Tennis Ireland. The article is from the Munster Tennis website. I hope they don't mind me borrowing it but I think the more people that read it the better chance we have of finding a future star.
Slower Courts

Tennis Photos from Cork 2009

Tennis in Cork - Article written by Conor O Callaghan

This article was written by Conor O Callaghan, Regional Development Officer for Munster Tennis.

Tennis in Cork

Tennis is thriving in Cork. It is widely believed that competition drives every sport on. However the most important aspect of competition is ‘Appropriate’ competition. Many of the clubs in the Cork region...Read more..

New Section Added.

In an earlier post, I told you about a new section to be added to this blog containing information on coaching, interviews with various Cork players and tennis articles all to be supplied by Cork players, well the first article is now available for you to read.
There will be a permanent link on the top right of this blog to bring you straight to this section or you can also click the link below.

Cork Tennis Articles.

International Tennis Number- Have you got yours?

Something also to look out for in Cork and also through out the country is the development of the International Tennis Number (ITN). The ITN is an international tennis number that represents a player’s general level of play. In time it is hoped that every tennis player world wide will have an ITN.

Under this system players will be rated from ITN 1 – ITN 10. ITN 1 represents a very high level player (holding an ATP/WTA ranking or of an equivalent playing standard) and ITN is a player that is starting to play competitively (can serve and return) on a full court using an ITF approved ball.

If you or your club require any further details of the ITN please contact your club coach or you can also contact Conor O Callaghan at cpoc1@hotmail.com.

Features coming soon to this blog.

I have various features lined up for this blog over the coming weeks and hope to continue them over the season ahead.

There will be features provided by various coaches on different aspects of the game, these will cover areas such as fitness, speed, agility and quickness, how tennis is progressing in Cork and Ireland

There will also be interviews with Cork players.

Watch this space.

World Vets Team Event in Mexico

Congratulations to 2 Cork players who will be taking part in the World Team Event in Mexico at the end of March.
They are Grace Reidy of Sundays Well Tennis Club and Liam O Brien of Rushbrooke Tennis Club.
Best of luck on your trip.

Australian Open update

Louk Sorensens amazing run came to an end this morning but he should and will take great confidence from what he has achieved. To run a seed that close shows there isn't a huge difference on any given day between the elite and the guys trying to make it, really it is just to get the opportunity once in a while.
I hope Louk progresses from here and that he inspires young prospects here in Ireland to believe in themselves and hopefully we won't have to wait another 25 years to be getting excited about a Grand Slam.
Although if John Morrissey and Sam Barry have anything to say about this we won't be.
They will be getting under way on Monday next.

The Sports Village :: Tennis, indoor tennis, outdoor tennis

The Sports Village :: Tennis, indoor tennis, outdoor tennis:

I hope with the weather we have being having that people are availing of the fine facilities at the sports village.

They have 2 Indoor International Tennis Federation Medium Fast courts( U.S. open standard)
3 State of the art outdoor Savannah courts.

You can book a court by
emailing sportsvillagecork@gmail.com
or call on 021-4544550

Louk Sorensen - Australian Open Update

The dream lives on!
After having to wait for a rain delay and then told you won't be playing at all today, his nerves must have being up and down all day but when Louk finally got on court against an opponent playing in his fifth open and ranked 180 or so places above him he held his nerve and won in four. 6\4, 3\6, 6\2, 6\1 and nows goes on to play the 33rd seed John Isner of America. This is not only a bigger task as Isner is seeded but also has he stands 6ft 9" tall.
But as they say "the bigger they are the harder they fall".
Best of Louk from Cork.

Cork Parks Tennis

History
Cork Parks Tennis was founded in 1984 and its main aim was to provide children in disadvantaged areas of the City with the opportunity of playing the game of tennis who would not normally have the opportunity to do so. In the first year, with a staff of 8 people Cork Parks Tennis catered for 400 children in 4 areas of the city and since then we have evolved to cater for any child who wishes to develop and improve at the game. The City of Cork V.E.C. played a huge role in the formation of Cork Parks Tennis, providing the necessary funding and support to ensure the project was in a position to get off the ground. In addition Cork City Council and Fás have also been great supporters of the scheme since its inception.

Structure
Cork Parks Tennis has a General Committee which oversees the ongoing running and development of Parks Tennis. The committee meets at monthly intervals and the following is a list of its members.
Dominic Crowley (Chairman)
Catherine Murphy (Coordinator)
Steven Scully (Cork City Council)
Tom Daly (City of Cork V.E.C)
John O’Rourke (Coaching Director)

As Coordinator Catherine Murphy is responsible for the overall running of both the Winter and Summer Programs in conjunction with John O’Rourke. She reports directly to the Committee and is in fact a member of this Committee. John O’Rourke is Coaching Director and has overall responsibility for the structures of the programs. There are then 28 Leaders operating at the various centres in our summer program throughout Cork City and they work closely with John. Cork Parks also operate a winter program in 17 schools.

Development
The Cork Parks Tennis has had a fairytale success story and in 1994 we catered for 4000 children in 14 areas, such as the Glen, Mahon, Togher, Churchfield, Knocknaheeney, etc. Staff numbers have also increased dramatically since 1989 and last year we had a total of 28 employees throughout the Summer. Cork Parks Tennis is now recognised throughout the City as one of the main providers of Recreational Facilities for children throughout these disadvantaged areas.

While this Recreational Facility will always remain our primary concern it is very rewarding to see seven of our members gaining Munster recognition since the inception of the scheme. In addition a number of our players have gained full membership on a scholarship basis with many clubs throughout the City. Presently one of our player’s, Paul Fitzgerald of the Glen was ranked Number 1 at U18 Level in the Country. Paul is now attending University is the US on a full Tennis Scholarship.

Overall Cork Parks Tennis are very pleased with their growth and development to date and look forward to continued progress in the years ahead.

Funding
Cork Parks Tennis is a Voluntary Organization and are very dependent on support from various Bodies including Fás, The City of Cork V.E.C. The Cork City Council and Nestle. As the children catered for in our program are for the most part from disadvantaged areas we fully appreciate that the level of fees, which we collect, will never amount to a significant sum. Indeed, in many cases the fees charged are of a Token Nature as we feel “anything one gets for nothing is never really appreciated'.

In summary therefore Cork Parks Tennis is very dependant on outside support as we will never be really in a position to Self Fund to any major degree.

For more information visit the website at www.corkparkstennis.com

Hit for Haiti

First Tournaments of the season

Juniors
30th April - 3rd May, Carrigaline Junior Open.

Seniors
1st April - 5th April, South of Ireland Omni Championships, Rushbrooke.

Veterans
22nd April - 25th April, Sundays Well Veterans Championships.

For a full list of the seasons fixtures click on link below:
Junior Calender
Senior Calender
Veterans Calender

Australian Open Update

Congratulations to Louk Sorensen on making the main draw of the Open. He will now face Yen Hsun Lu of Taipei who is playing in his fifth Australian Open and has reached the third round here in 2009.
It's a fabulous achievement to be in the main draw and let's hope it doesn't end here.

Unfortunately Conor Niland fell at the final hurdle but not without a fight. He lost in a third set and can be very proud of his performance.

Australian Open 2010 - Irish Interest

As you all know the Australian Open starts on Monday the 18th of January but for the qualifiers they are nearing the final stages.
Ireland has 2 men playing in the qualifiers, one from Limerick (Conor Niland) and one(Louk Sorensen) the son of Cork tennis legend Sean Sorensen.
To qualify each player has to win 3 matches and after todays round of matches both players overcame seeded opponents to advance to the final qualifying round.
So fingers crossed and all going well we could have 2 Irish men in the main draw of the first Grand Slam of the year.
That would be some achievement.
Best of Luck to both Conor and Louk.



Two Irish Juniors, John Morrissey and Sam Barry, will compete in the Australian Open Boys Singles main draw.

Post something on this blog.

If you would like to post information on this blog don't hesitate to contact me.
I would like to keep the blog as up to date as possible so the more info. I get the better for everyone.
You can get me at rob_leahy@yahoo.co.uk
Just to let you know Mahers Sports racket sale is ending on Sunday the 10th of January and currently has 20% off all rackets.

2009 to 2010, The season just gone and what lies ahead?

Well I had a very enjoyable season, my first one back in a while and it was great to catch up with old friends and thankfully along the way made some new ones.

If you are like me now, full after the Christmas season, you will be looking forward to the Winter league returning after the christmas break and looking forward to the season ahead.

Not much tennis being played in my home club, Rushbrooke, at the moment as the courts are frozen but hopefully this will sort itself out soon.

Some of the high points for me over the season were, Federer winning his record 15th Grand Slam, it now ends the Sampras debate, who I personally don't think was half the talent Federer is.
On a local level I was delighted to be at the Maher Sports Cup where I saw probably one of the best junior doubles games I have ever seen, an U-12 mixed doubles between Sundays Well and Rushbrooke. They were all very talented players but what impressed me more was the good mannered nature in which the game was played. No bad calls or questioned calls, plenty of compliments and genuine fun, the way the game should be played.
Next was a personal one, I was part of 2 interpro teams this year and because of not having being involved in a while I was delighted to catch up with some old friends from around the country.

I hope everyone who played this year enjoyed there year as much as I did and I wish you "All the best for 2010".