TENNIS IRISH OPEN:THIS STORY was initially going to be Jonathan Marray's courageous and hugely determined comeback from a career-threatening shoulder injury, but at the last minute it acquired an interesting Irish dimension.
And with all home interest in the Shelbourne ATP Irish Open Challenger terminated with the elimination of the Davis Cup doubles pairing of James Cluskey and Colin O'Brien on Wednesday, that represented a welcome development.
Coincidentally, Briton Marray had a hand in the despatching of the Dublin duo, teaming up with Denmark's Frederik Nielsen in the quarter-final contest at Fitzwilliam.
Yesterday, the 27-year-old right-hander from Sheffield made it a brace of semi-final advances with a 6-4 6-3 victory over the also unseeded Swede Bjorn Rehnquist.
Late in his post-match interview, Marray revealed he possesses a strong Irish connection. "My mother, Kathleen King, comes from Castleblayney in Co Monaghan, and one of my father's grandfathers is Irish," he explained.
"There are 10 children in my mother's family, so as you can imagine I have quite a lot of cousins living in Ireland. Some of them have moved from Castleblayney to Dublin, and a number came along to watch my matches, either on Wednesday or Thursday.
"Since I was very young, I have been coming over to Castleblayney at least two times a year, so I was alway very conscious of my Irish background."
The revelation predictably led on to the question of any possible interest in playing for Ireland in the Davis Cup. But the answer was was not in the affirmative.
"I know Conor (Niland) very well, but I feel English," he replied.
Marray has already come to the notice of the British Davis Cup selectors, being chosen in the squad, along with Tim Henman, Greg Rusedski and Arvind Parmar, for the away tie with Luxembourg in April 2004.
Because of a 10-month absence from tournament play due to his shoulder surgery, Marray's ranking has slipped to 1,598th, but he entertains strong hopes of at least matching his career-best mark of 215th, set in April 2005.
Today, he takes on his doubles partner, 306th-ranked Nielsen, a 7-6 (7/4) 6-4 winner over world 105 and number two seed, Gilles Muller of Luxembourg.
SHELBOURNE ATP IRISH OPEN CHALLENGER(at Fitzwilliam): Singles quarter-finals: (6) R Smeets (Aus) bt P Amritraj (Ind) 6-0 6-3; J Marray (Brit) bt B Rehnquist (Swe) 6-4 6-3; F Nielsen (Den) bt (2) G Muller (Lux) 7-6 (7/4) 6-4; T Cakl (Cze) bt I Klec (Svk) 7-6 (8/6) 6-3.
Doubles semi-finals:P Amritraj (Ind) A-Ul-Haq Qureshi (Pak) bt M Koning (Ned) M Middelkoop (Ned) 4-6 7-6 (7/4) 10-5 (champions' tie-break); J Marray (Brit) F Nielsen (Ned) bt (2) P Chekhov (Rus) A Kudryavtsev (Rus) 2-6 6-1 10-8 (champions' tie-break).
