IRELAND will have two players in the main draw of the Junior competition at Roland Garros this year, writes Johnny Watterson.
Limerick’s Sam Barry has reached the quarter-finals of the Belgian International Junior Championships and as a result of his progress in this event has been awarded a special exemption into the main draw of Roland Garros.
Barry will join John Morrissey in Paris, the first year Ireland has had two players in the junior draw.
Having played through qualifying in Belgium to reach the main draw, Barry defeated Argentine Facundo Mena 5-7, 6-1, 7-5 yesterday morning to reach the quarter-finals of the Grade One ITF event.
In the afternoon, he defeated Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia, who is ranked 14 in the world and he now faces either Oliver Golding (Brit) or Dimitar Kuzmanov (Bul) in today’s quarter-final.
British number one Golding defeated Barry earlier this year in the second round of the main draw of the Australian Open.
Morrissey, who was also playing this event, was defeated by the top seed Jason Kubler of Australia.
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