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Glancy puts out top seed Goodall at Fitzwilliam

TENNIS IRISH MEN’S OPEN: DANIEL GLANCY pulled off a shock win over the top seed in the Green Property Irish Men’s Open at the…

Wed Jul 21 2010 - 01:00

TENNIS IRISH MEN'S OPEN:DANIEL GLANCY pulled off a shock win over the top seed in the Green Property Irish Men's Open at the Fitzwilliam Club yesterday.

Glancy’s victory serves as an additional boost for Irish tennis following on the shock victory of Dublin teenager John Morrissey over Georgia’s 1,235-ranked Lazare Kukhalashvili on Monday.

The 20-year-old Castlebar, Co Mayo, native took just over an hour to send Britain’s Josh Goodall packing from the lone adult world ranking event on the Irish calendar.

Admittedly, Goodall was forced to retire from the first round contest because of a hip flexor problem, but that did little to tarnish the achievement of his opponent, who prevailed on a 6-4 5-1 margin.

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A massive gulf of almost 600 places separated the two players in the singles world rankings – 379 to 976 – and Goodall had come into the Dublin event in a rich vein of form, having captured the singles title in last week’s corresponding ITF Futures event in Frinton-on-Sea, England.

In addition, Goodall, ranked at 184 in July 2009, was chosen to represent Britain in last year’s Davis Cup tie against Ukraine.

Glancy, a former national under-18 singles champion and winner of the Irish Close title earlier this month just up the road at the Donnybrook club, plays regularly on the ITF Futures Tour, even venturing to Iran for a tournament last year.

His reward for yesterday’s win is a second-round showdown with another Briton, Daniel Cox, who eliminated Zimbabwe’s Taranyi Garanganga on a 6-4 6-4 scoreline.

Dubliner Colin O’Brien joined Glancy in the second round, but the commendable run of Carlow’s Tommy Murphy was brought to a halt.

Malahide left-hander O’Brien, the number eight seed, had to battle hard to see off the challenge of 18-year-old French qualifier Albano Olivetti on a 7-5 7-6 (7/4) margin. Ranked at 647 in the world, O’Brien was over 600 places ahead of his opponent, who is placed at 1,261.

In the second round, O’Brien takes on Malta’s 924-ranked Matthew Asciak, who recorded a 6-4 6-0 victory over Murphy.

Singles First round: (8) C O’Brien (Irl) bt A Olivetti (Fra) 7-5 7-6 (7/4); D Glancy (Irl) bt (1) J Goodall (Bri) 6-4 5-1 (Goodall ret inj); M Asciak (Mlt) bt T Murphy (Irl) 6-4 6-0; S Sterland-Markovic (Brit) bt J Maher (Aus) 6-3 (Maher ret inj); D Cox (Brit) bt T Garanganga (Zim) 6-4 6-4. C Bergman (Swe) bt (6) C Ebelthite (Aus) 7-6 (7/3) 7-6 (7/4); (7) A Falgheri (Ita) bt C Priddle (Brit) 6-3 3-6 6-3; S Cauvard (Fra) bt (5) A Foie (Bel) 3-6 6-3 7/6 (7/5)

Doubles First round: (4) C Grassi (Ita) / E Crepaldi (Ita) bt D Glancy (Irl) / T Murphy (Irl) 4-6 3-6 10-5; C Bergman (Swe)/S Borg (Swe) bt A Escoffier (Fra)/A Olivetti (Fra) 6-1 4-6 10-5; T Garanganza (Zim)/S Sterland-Markovic (Brit) bt J Maher (Aus)/Chris Priddle (Brit) w/o.

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