Time and time again Ireland’s elite Handballers travel across the Atlantic to take on the worlds best, and more often than not they come back victorious. Two players in particular who are dominating the scene right now are Paul Brady & Catriona Casey. Pressure doesn’t faze either player, as they continuously defeat all challengers.
This weekend both players travelled to San Francisco to the WPH Pro-Stop, and stormed through the field to take home the men’s and ladies open crowns. Brady shows no sign of letting up, as the 35 year old Cavan man looked as sharp as ever, and was never in any real doubt as he defeated home town player Emmet Peixoto 15-6, 15-10 in the final. Peixoto struggled with Brady’s power serving, but his obvious attempt of slowing the game down with repetitive timeouts and glove changes didn’t deter Brady in the slightest. Paul’s mental strength and concentration was obvious, and afterwards he stated he ‘identified it as a tactic, and just kept focused throughout.’
Earlier in the week, Brady had seen off Abe Montijo (15-0, 15-4), Sean Lenning (15-3, 15-4) & Dave Fink (15-2, 15-10) en route to the final. Two other Irish men were in the draw, as Martin Mulkerrins & Stephen Cooney qualified for the top 16 through the qualifers, where they eventually fell to Emmet Peixoto & Dave Fink respectively. Catriona Casey entered the Mens qualifiers in addition to her ladies open event, and fell 25-20 to Californian Raul Jasso.
In the ladies open grade however Casey had no such problems, conceding a miserable seven aces in her three matches. Casey dispatched Sandy Ng (15-1, 15-1), & Danielle Daskalakis (15-5, 15-0) en route to the final. There she put on an exhibition of Handball to ruthlessly dispatch Jessica Gawley 15-0, 15-0 after Gawley herself looked impressive in her QF & SF encounters.
Click Here for Mens Open Results
Click Here for Ladies Open Results