GEORGE McGILL of Limerick wisely took his time in deciding on his tennis future in the American collegiate system. He starts a four-year scholarship at the University of Indiana on Sunday and, yesterday at Riverview, improved his chances of bringing the Irish Open Indoor title with him.
McGill's game has matured with such rapidity in recent months that his repeated rejections of long-term American offers since winning the Irish under-18 title 16 months ago now stands an excellent chance of being vindicated.
He has been working on building sites and in a solicitor's office in between grooming his game on short trips abroad.
His straight sets win over Nicky Malone yesterday, to gain a semifinal place, was based on a very rounded game and was brimful of excellent play, not least out of the backhand side of the court.
In the circumstances it was to Malone's credit that he broke McGill so many times, but the Indiana-bound 19-year-old broke three times in the first set and twice in the second to emerge a convincing, if relieved, 6-3 6-3 winner.
McGill goes into his semi-final against number two seed Robert Collins with the added confidence of being 1-0 up on the head-to-head. Collins proved a straight sets winner over Sean Cooper.
Top seed Owen Casey had no problems in beating an inexperienced Stephen Taylor 6-1 6-2. Number six seed David Mullins surprised number four seed Ross Niland, winning 6-4 6-2.
The women's singles is going very much to plan. Top seed Yvonne Doyle dismantled Yvonne Flynn's game to such an extent that the Cork girl could only manage to win one game in a brief encounter which ended 6-0 6-1.
Lesley O'Halloran, seeded to meet Doyle in tomorrow's final, beat Templeogue's Susan O'Neill 6-2 6-1.
. Thomas Muster had an amazing outburst at a spectator using a mobile phone, as he struggled into the quarter-finals of the Qatar Open yesterday.
The top-seeded Austrian had become increasingly disgruntled by line calls in the second set of the match against Christian Ruud - and the ringing of mobile telephones inside the stadium court.
At one stage, Muster screamed at a spectator: "Turn off your phone or get the hell out of here!"
Muster lost his concentration and the second set, but eventually won 6-2 3-6 7-5 to set up a last-eight clash against American Jim Courier, the eighth seed.
Courier made the last eight with a 6-3 6-4 win over Romanian qualifier Razvan Sabau.
Czech defending champion Petr Korda saw off Magnus Norman of Sweden 6-7 6-4 6-2 while Sergi Bruguera defeated fellow Spaniard Javier Sanchez 6-0 6-1.
In today's quarter-finals, Muster takes on Courier, Bruguera meets Korda, Sweden's number five seed Magnus Gustafsson faces Britain's Tim Henman and Morocco's Hicham Arazi plays Sweden's Magnus Larsson.
