O'Brien earns a shot at a family tie

TENNIS IRISH OPEN:COLIN O'BRIEN set up an intriguing confrontation with the son of a tennis legend when he clinched a quarter-final place in the Green Property Irish Men's Open yesterday.

By putting Malta’s Matthew Asciak to the sword on a 7-6 (7/4), 6-2 scoreline at the Fitzwilliam Club, the 26-year-old Dubliner must now overcome the number two seed, Slovakia’s Miloslav Mecir, if he is to figure in the last four of the ITF Futures world-ranking event.

Mecir possesses a modest enough ranking of 397, but his family tennis pedigree is of the highest order. His father, also Miloslav, was an outstanding player during the 1980s, capturing the singles gold medal in the 1988 Seoul Olympics.

Mecir senior, once ranked fourth in the world, also reached the final of the US Open in 1986 and the final of the Australian Open in 1989, losing to Ivan Lendl on each occasion.

Considering that Mecir junior is now 22, and his career-high mark is 393, the odds seem stacked against him having a chance of emulating the achievements of his father. But he has still taken some notable scalps this year, including two top 100 players.

The Malahide left-hander will be hoping to improve on his performance in the first set of his match against Asciak where he struggled consistently with his timing and accuracy before shading the tie-break.

But early in the second set O’Brien began to find a decent rhythm, breaking his opponent on two occasions before comfortably closing out the match.

Number five seed James McGee also booked a place in the last eight, easily seeing off the challenge of American qualifier James Ludlow on a 6-3, 6-2 margin.

However, Barry King and Daniel Glancy bowed out. After a three hour marathon late on Tuesday night against Britain’s Burnham Alridge, King succumbed 7-5, 1-6, 7-6 (7/0) to Italy’s Andrea Falgheri. And Glancy suffered a 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 defeat by Britain’s Daniel Cox.

RESULTS: Singles second round: (8) C O'Brien (Irl) bt M Asciak (Mlt) 7-6 6-2, (5) J McGee (Irl) bt J Ludlow (USA) 6-3 6-2, D Cox (Brit) bt D Glancy (Irl) 1-6 6-4 6-2, (7) A Falgheri (Ita) bt B King (Irl) 7-5 1-6 7-6, (2) M Mecir (Svk) bt A Escoffier (Fra) 7-5 6-3, S Cauvard (Fra) bt J Morrissey (Irl) 4-6 6-3 6-4, C Bergman (Swe) bt S Sterland-Markovic (Brit) 6-3 6-2; X Spong (Ned) bt S Borg (Swe) 6-3 6-4.

Doubles quarter-finals:(1) J McGee (Irl)/M Mecir (Svk) bt C Bergman (Swe)/S Borg (Swe) 4-6 6-4 10-6, (4) E Crepaldi (Ita)/C Grassi (Ita) bt T Garanganga (Zim)/S Sterland-Markovic (Brit) 3-6 6-3 10-5, (3) B King (Irl)/C O'Brien (Irl) bt S La Porte (USA)/E Seator (Brit) 6-4 6-4, (2) J Cluskey (Irl)/C O'Brien (Irl) bt M Danis (Svk)/J Krkoksa (Cze) 6-1 7-5.