LEADING Irish tennis players Owen Casey and Scott Barron have been granted wild card entries into the Olympic Games where they will compete together in the doubles event.

The two men, who are both currently out of the country playing, learned of the decision to include them in the draw on Friday while Tennis Ireland confirmed the decision yesterday.

There were just eight wild cards for the 32 strong event, so the pair appeared to be outsiders with Barron's ranking in particular seeming to be a major obstacle. The ITF also took geographical factors into account when making their decision, however, while restricting each country to a maximum of one entry.

For 26 year old Casey, who had remained consistently optimistic in recent months that the news would be good, the trip to Atlanta will be his third to a Games he also participated in Seoul and Barcelona. Selection will also boost his morale after a number of injury setbacks in recent years.

Last weekend the Irish number one went out of the qualifiers for the Queens tournament 7-6, 6-7, 6-1 to American Alex O'Brien. The 26 year old O'Brien, while currently ranked in the mid 200s at singles, is a very highly rated doubles player.

Casey now switches his attention to Nottingham where he is likely to play on Saturday and his overseas schedule takes him up to the end of this month when he plans to return to Ireland for tournaments, including the nationals, in Dublin, Limerick and Belfast.

At that stage the two players will be looking to get some match practice together ahead of the trip to America as their appearances in doubles have to date, with the exception of the odd Davis Cup match, been few and far between.