Shelbourne Irish Open: There was disappointment for the three Irish players in action in the first round of the Shelbourne ATP Irish Open Challenger event at Fitzwilliam today.
Tristan Farron-Mahon gave a good account of himself against Kristian Pless, who had been as high as 65th in the world, but the Dane ultimately had too much class for the Dubliner.
Ranked fourth for this year's tournament, Pless, who was runner-up in 2006, was pushed to a third set tie-break before winning 7-6 (7/3) 3-6 7/6 (7/2).
"I went into the match with nothing to lose...unfortunately when I was 5-4 and 6-5 up in the third set, he came up with a host of big serves." said Farron-Mahon.
Another Irish wild card Colin O'Brien was also a first round loser as Pakistan's Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi got the better of him 6-3, 7-6. Eoin Heavey also lost in straight sets to India's Prakash Amritraj 6-4, 6-3.
Irish number two Conor Niland gets his campaign under way this evening against Britain's Alexander Slabinsky. Niland, the world number 304, is fresh of last week's win at the ITF Futures world-ranking event in his home town of Limerick.
Shelbourne Irish Open Results
Men's Singles First Round
G Muller (LUX) bt M Felder (URU) 57 64 63
I Klec (SVK) bt R Bloomfield (GBR) 63 62
K Pless (DEN) bt T Farron Mahon (IRL) 76(3) 36 76(2)
C Ebelthite (AUS) bt P Chekhov (RUS) 76(3) 64
J Marray (GBR) bt H Mankad (IND) 36 63 64
A Qureshi (PAK) bt C O'Brien (IRL) 63 76(3)
M Koning (NED) bt M Zverev (GER) 64 63
P Amritraj (IND) bt E Heavey (IRL) 64 63
T Cakl (CZE) bt M Fischer (AUT) 76(4) 64