Owen Casey rounded off a conclusive argument for his entitlement to play Goran Ivanisevic on the first day of this week's Davis Cup tie against Croatia, when lifting a fourth Irish Close title at Donnybrook on Saturday.
Casey's straight sets win, 6-1 6-4, over Peter Clarke, the number two seed and, especially the manner in which he executed the task on a wet surface, makes him an automatic choice for next Friday's starting line up at Fitzwilliam.
The out of character joyous yelp released by the 30-year-old when finally clinching the match reflected, he insists, how important the win was to him.
"It was blustery out there and I feel I used the conditions well by varying my game and moving him about," said Casey. The conditions militated against Clarke's game who is better suited to playing on clay but Casey was seen at his determined best and utilised consistently accurate and powerful first deliveries. "I think I only had to play a second serve on a couple of occasions," he said.
The match lasted just over an hour and a half but Clarke's opening service game, the first of the match, was the only game he won in the first set. Casey reeled off the next six games dropping only three points on his own serves for the set.
The second set was much closer as Clarke steadied up on serve and just when a tie break seemed likely Casey broke to love in the ninth game and closed out the match with his serve in the following game.
Cork's Elsa O'Riain got her serve into groove in the second set of the women's final to make top seed Gina Niland wish she had more competitive matches under her belt. As it was Niland's game looked desperately fragile and she can hardly, if ever, have made so many unforced errors in a single match.
O'Riain had to be patient with her own game and probably did her chances, early on, a lot of harm by being over anxious to put pressure on her opponent. Niland's game became particularly brittle in the second set and while O'Riain's play didn't exactly catch fire in a poor match, her service games gave her a distinct edge. O'Riain dropped only four points on serve in the second set.
