A PRIORITY for top seed David Mullins in today's final of the Dunlop Irish Open Tennis championship at Fitzwilliam will be to justify the financial backing of sponsors which funded a 12-month odyssey on the professional circuits.
The Shankhill youth goes into today's under-18 decider without having dropped a set. His opponent, Nicky Malone from further down the east coast at Greystones, outgunned the number two seed, Sean Cooper, both physically and mentally, in a 6-4, 6-2 win.
It means that Mull ins, who rebuffed the challenge of Cormac Jennings, will be playing the second of two unexpected opponents in two days.
Jennings led 371 in, the first set and to his credit, tried to force the game behind a good serve. However, he was clearly better at contesting the rallies than winning points.
Claire Curran beat Aoife O'Neill to claim her allotted place in today's final but only before losing six games and failing, to polish off her opponent earlier. She meets Templeogue base-liner Susan O'Neill, a 6-0 6-3 winner over Maria Scanlan.
Kieran Lovell became the first Tipperary player to reach a final at this level, when he reached the junior boys' final. He did it in some style too, by shocking the top seed Mark Finnegan in straight sets.
