TENNIS IRISH OPEN:JAMES McGEE was yesterday rueing his failure to convert two match points in the semi-final of the Green Property Irish Men's Open.

The 23-year-old Dubliner had an opportunity to overcome Daniel Cox when he led 5-6 in the third set at the Fitzwilliam Club. But the British player saved the day before going on to clinch a final place against Italy’s number seven seed Andrea Falgheri who shocked the number two seed, Slovakia’s Miloslav Mecir, 6-3 2-6 6-3.

Making McGee’s defeat even more unpalatable was the fact he was totally on top in the first set during which Cox failed to win a game. But the home player couldn’t maintain his earlier momentum and crashed out of the tournament on a 0-6 6-1 7-6 (4/7) scoreline.

But there was Irish joy in the doubles final when James Cluskey and Colin O’Brien scored a 6-2 7-6 (7/1) win over Ireland’s Barry King and Australia’s Colin Ebelthite.

In the singles semi-final, McGee seemed to particularly possess a gilt-edged opportunity to close out the match when Cox missed his first serve on his opponent’s second break point. But to the disappointment of the home crowd, the Castleknock man mishit his return into the net.

“I should have taken better advantage of that situation, and that cost me the match in the end,” said McGee.

The Davis Cup ace also felt that the first game of the second set exercised a major bearing on the eventual outcome, with McGee once again failing to take advantage of a number of break points.

“I feel that game was one of the turning points in the match,” he explained. “I had a number of break points, and I also saved a number of game points on his serve before he eventually held to go 1-0 up. That gave him a lot of confidence that he could work his way back into the match.”

In fact, in the next game the British player broke McGee’s serve for the first time in the match, before breaking again in the fourth game, and then holding serve to surge into a 5-0 lead.

“He certainly got on to a real roll,” said McGee, “before I managed to hold my serve for 1-5. But there was no way of saving the set at that stage.”

The final set went with serve all the way through to the tie-break, and the players were tied at 4-4 before Cox reeled off the next three points to seal the match.

But when leading 4-3 in games McGee failed to convert a break point to take an emphatic 5-3 advantage with his own serve to come.