Casey continues to hold court

Owen Casey continued to keep young pretenders at bay when seeing off the challenge of Dundalk's James Pringle in the semi-finals of the East of Ireland senior open championships at Londonbridge Road last evening.

Casey wrapped up the first set in 25 minutes dropping only eight points in taking the last four games. Pringle lifted his game in the second and kept the top seed busy in well-plotted rallies. However, he struggled with a meek second serve. The more adaptable Casey saved a break-point in the seventh game of the second set, a deep approach and the angled volley doing the job. He broke for 5-4 in a 12-point following game and served out in confidence after 71 minutes, 6-1, 6-3.

Robert Collins duly endorsed his number two seeding by qualifying for the final at the expense of Nick Malone 6-4, 6-2.

Claire Curran won the most competitive match of the tournament so far when beating Lesley O'Halloran 6-2, 3-6, 6-2, a result which sets up another final clash with great rival Gina Niland. Niland ousted her Federation Cup team-mate Yvonne Flynn from Cork, 6-4, 6-4.

Niland's experience showed in the lengthy base line rallies.

Men's Singles - Semi-finals: O Casey bt J Pringle 6-1 6-3; R Collins bt N Malone 6-4 62.

Women's Singles - Semi-finals: G Niland bt Y Flynn 6-4 6-4; C Curran bt L O'Halloran 6-2 3-6 6-2.

Men's Doubles - Quarter-finals: O Casey and R Collins bt D Cooney and B Keenan 6-0 6-0; S Cooper and D Mullins bt D Power and D Sewell 6-4 6-2; N Fagan and S Taylor bt N Malone and C Molloy 6-2 6-1; J Pringle and J Green bt R Cherry and R Morris 6-2 6-1.

Women's Doubles - Quarter-finals: J Quinn and L McCracken bt M Murphy and T

Corbett 6-0 6-0; L O'Shea and E Doyle bt J Timoney and S Sheppard 7-6 6-4.

Defending champion and fourth seed Monica Seles defeated fifth-seeded Nathalie Tauziat of France 6-4, 6-4 on Thursday night to become the first semi-finalist at the $450,000 Acura Classic.

"It was a good performance," Seles said of her 64-minute match. "I was very intense in competing on every point. I had some spurts where I played really good tennis. Overall, I'm pretty happy."

Seles improved to 9-0 lifetime without the loss of a set to this summer's Wimbledon runner-up and world number 11.