Saturday saw the return of many players from the Christmas tournament to battle it out with some new players in the Spring Tournament at West Wood.
The tournament was held at West Wood Leopardstown on Saturday with over 30 players.
For the first time, the tournament expanded to four divisions ensuring evenly balanced matches between players. The tournament attracted a range of players from previous tournaments as well as new players. Recently retired captain of Emerald Warriors RFC, Ciaran O’Sullivan, has hung up his boots and picked up his racket for the tournament, entering Division A where he found himself up against top seeds Gary Lynch and Niall Curran. Mark O’Donovan, chairman Dublin Devils soccer club, also entered the tournament in Division B (see later).
Other newbies included Daniel Kavanagh (Skerries LTC), Keith Linehan (Cork), Roy Jaen, Jose Sastre (West Wood) and Gerard Victory.
All divisions played a round-robin format with the top two from each round-robin going through to semis.
DIVISION A
Stephen Markham (Swords LTC), John Ward (Wicklow Town) Gary Lynch and Niall Curran (both West Wood) went through to the semi-finals. Again, top seeds Gary and Niall went through to a closely contested final with Niall overcoming Gary 6-4.
DIVISION B
Semi-finalists emerging from the Division B round-robins included Ken Lyons, Noel Quirke and Ken Wardrop (all Mount Pleasant LTC) and Mark O'Donovan. With many games going to deuce, it was another closely contested final with Noel Quirke overcoming Mark O'Donovan.
DIVISION C
Christmas Tournament winner Barry Dignam was back again and was joined in the semis by Eugene Renehan (Mount Pleasant LTC), Roger Dowds (Taney LTC) and Roy Jaen. Roger and Barry proceeded to the final with Roger emerging victorious, 6-3.
DIVISION D
'Newbies' Jose Saste and Gerard Victory joined Ronan MacMuiris and Seamus Duffy in the semis with Ronan and Seamus going through to the final. Another closely contested final saw Seamus overcoming Ronan with a match going to 5-5 with a tie-break 8-6 in favour of Seamus.
AND FINALLY…..
Later on that evening, the Tournament Dinner and Prize Giving took place at the Trinity Capital Hotel. Apart from the formal prizes, special prizes were awarded to all the newbies by MC John Darby. The “OUT4TENNIS Academy” presented Stephen Markham with the Roger Federer Best Package award!
The Dublin Men’s Summer Tournament will take place on Saturday 18th July.