Ross Matheson of Scotland put an end to John Doran's ambition to reach his first Irish Open tennis championship final in over an hour and a half of power-hitting at Templeogue last evening.
Matheson's more consistent serves and accurate returns eventually saw him through, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3, but the young Irish Davis Cup player played defiantly for at least half the match. Doran was first to break serve in the eighth game of the first set, but from the sixth game of the second set onwards the high-powered match began to slip from the Irish man's grasp. Doran was broken here and again in the eighth game for Matheson to pick up the set handily enough.
With that part of his task achieved, Matheson took the opening game of the final set to love and Doran subsequently could salvage only minimal points on the Scot's serve.
Matheson's returns were putting increasing pressure on Doran whose downhill slide was not helped by a recalcitrant first serve. "I never served as badly all season," he admitted. Yet, the crucial final-set break did not arrive for Matheson until the sixth game. "I was punished in the first set for the only really poor service game I played in the match," said Matheson.
It was an interesting experience for Doran seeing that he once operated as ball boy during a Matheson match. It was also an experience that can only do the young Harvard student a world of good.
Matheson, seeded three, faces the number four seed, Tom Spinks from Britain, in today's final. Spinks is another big hitter and found angles well against topseeded South African Vaughan Snyman.
The favourite was stubborn to the core in the first set, which he finally lost 6-4 after saving four set points.
A lack of mobility cost him important points whenever Spinks struck with some impeccable placement. Spinks began to find more answers to Snyman's methodical approach and ran out a convincing 6-4, 6-2 winner in an hour.
Men's Singles - semi-finals: T Spinks (Brit) bt V Synman (RSA) 6-4, 6-2; T Matheson (Brit) bt J Doran (Ire) 3-6, 6-2, 6-3.
