TENNIS/Irish Junior OpenWhile none of the favourites had even blinked by the end of second round matches in the Danone Irish junior Tennis Open championships at the Fitzwilliam club yesterday it appears that Niall Murphy (Tramore) and Gavin Gilhawley (Castleknock) have already booked their allotted places in Saturday's finals, writes Pat Roche.
Both players have been in frugal form since the championships began and are already in the last eight of the minor boys singles without dropping a game.
Graham Smyth and Ciaráin Fitzgerald are next in line to sample the flair of the top seeded duo, who could, however, face their sternest challenges so far in the process.
James McGee, the number two seed to Gareth Doran in the race for top under-18 honours, holds an obvious threat to the holders title won by an unseeded Doran last year.
McGee has already achieved something unique in Irish tennis by winning two ITF world junior ranking tournaments this summer.
Like the two younger division players Murphy and Gilhawley, McGee has yet to lose a game and will have a distinct advantage over his next opponent Andrew Curtis, denied of a match so far having received a first round walk-over.
Details in SPORTS ROUND-UP
US OPEN Men's seedings: 1-A Agassi (U.S.) 2-R Federer (Swi) 3-J C Ferrero (Spain) 4-A Roddick (U.S.) 5-G Coria (Arg) 6-L Hewitt (Aus) 7-C Moya (Spain) 8-R Schuettler (Ger) 9-S Grosjean (Fra) 10-J Novak (Czech Rep) 11-P Srichaphan (Thailand) 12-S Schalken (Neth) 13-D Nalbandian (Arg) 14-G Kuerten (Bra) 15-F Gonzalez (Chile) 16-M Verkerk (Neth) 17-T Robredo (Spain) 18-MMirnyi (Belarus) 19-A Calleri (Arg) 20-M Philippoussis (Aus) 21-F Mantilla (Spain) 22-Y El Aynaoui (Morocco) 23-W Ferreira (S Africa) 24-M Fish (US) 25-A Costa (Spain) 26-M Safin (Russia) 27-M Zabaleta (Arg) 28-Y Kafelnikov (Russia) 29-FLopez (Spain) 30-G Gaudio (Arg) 31-A Clement (France) 32-V Spadea (U.S.)
Women's seedings: 1-K Clijsters (Bel) 2-J Henin-Hardenne (Bel) 3-L Davenport (U.S.) 4-V Williams (U.S.) 5-A Mauresmo (Fra) 6-J Capriati (U.S.) 7-A Myskina (Russia) 8-C Rubin (U.S.) 9-D Hantuchova (Slovakia) 10-M Maleeva (Bul) 11-E Dementieva (Russia) 12-C Martinez (Spain) 13-V Zvonareva (Russia) 14-A Coetzer (South Africa) 15-A Sugiyama (Jap) 16-E Bovina (Russia) 17-M Shaughnessy (U.S.) 18-P Schnyder (Swi) 19-N Petrova (Russia) 20-S Farina-Elia (Italy) 21-A Pistolesi (Isr) 22-J Dokic (Yug) 23-N Dechy (Fra) 24-P Suarez (Arg) 25-E Daniilidou (Gre) 26-L Krasnoroutskaya (Russia) 27-S Kuznetsova (Rus) 28-L Raymond (U.S.) 29-F Schiavone (Ita) 30-M Serna (Spain) 31-A Stevenson (US) 32-M-G Mikaelian (Swi).
