Crux for Casey

Owen Casey, the number two seed, is being forced into an invidious position in the Irish Close Championships at Donnybrook.

It's important to Casey and Ireland that his fellow singles player Scott Barron is 100 per cent fit for next week's weeks Davis Cup tie against Denmark, but it appears it is inevitable that Casey he will be the one forced to stretch injury-suspect Barron to the limit should the seedings pan out and they meet in Saturday's final.

Casey had a comfortable victory over Justin Purcell in his second round match yesterday, while Barron had an easy 40 minute win over the unseeded Conor Smith. Sean Cooper showed his true mettle when ousting Robert Collins, the Davis Cup player, 7-5 7-5.

The women's semi-finals will see Gina Niland take on Lisa O'Shea and Yvonne Doyle play Lesley O'Halloran.