On Tennis: So after 12 tournaments ranging from the Limerick and Dublin Futures events to the Graded Open last week in Wicklow, the final of the Danone Masters series takes place this weekend in Castleknock Tennis Club, writes Johnny Watterson.

Qualification for the final weekend - involving eight men and eight women in round-robin formats - was based on 12 competitions throughout the year, players using their best five results to make the grade.

For Irish players, events like the Masters offer continuity through the summer as well as an end goal. Players can plan their months and know if they gain the points they will play in an elite Irish event at the end of it all and one that rewards well.

The tournament, which has the biggest prize-fund of any outside the three internationals run in Ireland over the summer, offers €2,500 to both singles winners. The runners up receive €1,500, third and fourth get €1,000, and so on down to €500 for eighth.

A number of Ireland's Davis Cup players have been involved. Conor Niland, Stephen Nugent, James Magee and James Cluskey have played in two or three events. Colin O'Brien has played seven competitions, which puts him at the top of the ladder going into the weekend.

O'Brien won the events in Carrickmines, Castleknock and the East of Ireland. Nugent picked up bundles of points in Co Wicklow and the Munster Championships, while Niland earned enough points from the event in Limerick and the Indoor Championships to see him safely into the last eight for the weekend's wrap-up.

In theory the Masters 2006 event has been a success. The start list for Castleknock, however, tells a different story. Of the top eight qualifiers - O'Brien, Nugent, Niland, Conor Taylor, Nelson Boyle, Peter Clarke, James McCluskey and James Magee - only Nugent, Taylor, Boyle and Clarke are available to play. None of the others will take to the courts at Castleknock.

O'Brien, who accumulated 900 points, is in the USA at University, as is Magee (320 points), McCluskey (220 points) and Eoin Heavey (200 points), who finished the qualification process in ninth place, having played just the Indoor Championships.

Niland, who is giving the professional circuit a serious effort over the next year or two in hopes of climbing the world rankings, is playing a Futures competition in Holland.

Among the women, Leigh Walsh and Emma Murphy, both of whom also qualified for this weekend, are in the States, which leaves room for the young Federation Cup player Rachael Dillon to step up.

The critical point is that six from 16 won't be taking part in the grand finale of a competition for which they qualified. The men's side is, obviously, more seriously holed than the women's. In that context, Irish tennis may want to question how much the Castleknock event has been devalued by unavailability. They might ask themselves and the players how they can alleviate the external pressures and ensure that next year the competition is arranged so the top individuals in the domestic game play to the finish.

No doubt when US universities ask players to be at a certain place at a certain time, the players have to listen, and with Niland out trying to carve a niche for himself, you can understand his reluctance to forfeit chances of ranking points.

With Niland and O'Brien out of contention, however, the door opens a little for Nugent and Clarke. And for Simon Wrafter, Daniel Glancy, David O'Connell and Michael Hayes, there is the chance to play in an event in which they would not have originally been included.

The women offer better value, with Yvonne Doyle, on an enormous 1,250 points, leading the qualification ladder.

Mariana Levova, Ann Marie Hogan, Lesley O'Halloran, Lisa Lawlor, Vanessa Newman and Jenny Claffey complete the line-up.