Tennis - Men's Irish OpenIrish interest ended halfway through yesterday's third day of play when Peter Clarke was beaten by England's ... Richard Bloomfield 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 in the men's Irish Open Championships at Fitzwilliam, reports Pat Roche.

Ireland's top-ranked player could not cope with Bloomfield's 140mph serve as the aces and service winners flowed freely.

"His service games were unbelievable. I could not get a read on them," said Clarke after he had lost in 90 minutes.

The young German prospect Mischa Zverev revealed some flaws in the game of the deputy number-one seed from Serbia, Janko Tipsarevic, in a 7-6 (7-5), 6-2 victory. Tipsarevic was a late call-up to the number-one position after the original choice, Daniel Braccialli of Italy, was injured at Wimbledon and could not travel to Dublin.