The Irish contingent travelled across the Atlantic for last weekends US Open, and yet again came home with the key titles as Westmeath's Robbie McCarthy & Cork's Catriona Casey claimed the Mens & Ladies Open crowns.
In the Men's SF's, both were Ireland v America encounters. Robbie McCarthy, just out of the 60x30 court a few weeks, & current US Nationals champ Killian Carroll impressively took down top American players Luis Moreno (21-20, 21-7) & Emmett Peixoto (21-6, 21-18) respectively.
In the top SF on Saturday morning, McCarthy blitzed top seeded American star Sean Lenning 21-3, 21-8, but Carroll feel to an 11-9 tiebreak loss to second seeded American Mando Ortiz.
In the final it was McCarthy who stole the early march, with his classy all round court play dominating Ortiz, winning 21-5. The attacking Ortiz did not wilt though and forced the current All-Ireland champ McCarthy to dig deep in the second, before the Mullingar man sealed victory 21-17 in an absorbing match.
In the Ladies, all four semi-finalists were Irish, as reigning champion Aisling Reilly ousted Aoife McCarthy 21-1, 21-3. The second SF saw two of the games big hitters in Catriona Casey & Martina McMahon. Casey had the upper hand in McMahon over the last number of years, but McMahon did break that run with a very impressive All-Ireland 60x30 Final win just a few weeks ago. Albeit in a different court, the win should give McMahon the confidence to go on and break the big two of Reilly & Casey in the 40x20.
The first game was predictably tight, but Casey edged it 21-15. From there she commanded control of the match and sealed her final placing with a second game 21-8 win.
The final was set up for another classic, with Reilly having won last years final 11-9 in the tiebreak. But matches between these two stars are so unpredictable, and yesterday it was the turn of Casey to put on a show, as she comfortably took the title 21-3, 21-14.
Other Irish Winners:
- Mens A - Fergal Coughlan Jnr (Clare)
- Ladies A - Avril McNamee (Donegal)
- Mens B - Shane Murphy (Limerick)
- Mens B Doubles - Cormac McMahon & Daryl Dolan (Cavan)
- Mens 35+ - Paul Graham (Antrim)
- Mens 50+ - Robbie McCarthy Snr (Westmeath)
- Boys 11&U - Kyle Jordan (Kilkenny)
- Boys 13&U - Mark Doyle (Wexford)
- Boys 15&U - Josh Kavanagh (Wexford)
- Boys 17&U - Eoin Brennan (Kilkenny)