Irish number ones Conor McElduff and Catriona Casey safely negotiated their way to the quarter-finals of the Men’s and Ladies Open Singles respectively at the oneills.com World Wallball Championships at the University of Limerick.
Tyrone’s McElduff ran out a 21-11, 21-18 victor over New York-based Palestinian Mohamad Mansi. The left-hander pushed the Breacach clubman in the second game but McElduff kept his composure to march on to a last-eight clash with Louthman Ben Devlin.
Drogheda’s Devlin, a former All-Ireland senior finalist, had an impressive 21-18, 21-16 win over experienced American Vlad Klym.
In the Ladies Open, Casey cruised to an easy two-game win over Nancy Dong while there were also wins for Martina McMahon (Limerick), Ciara Mahon (Kilkenny), Eilise McCrory (Tyrone) and Aoife McCarthy (Westmeath) on a brilliant day for the Irish women.
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Out of luck Tuesday morning was young Sligo player Cormac Finn. The Ballymote star had to deal with personal grief following the passing of his grandfather Padraig on Monday and had an emotional win over Basque Mikel Beldarrain in a wafer-thin 11-10 tiebreaker in the round of 16.
However, a bold bid against American ace Tywan Cook came up short as the decorated New Yorker scraped home 21-20, 21-20.
Elsewhere, top-ranked UK player Luke Thomson was comfortable in turning back American Arthur Sayed in straight games (21-13, 21-11) while 19-year-old Armagh man Fiachra Ó Dúill played superbly in defeat, losing a tiebreaker to American Julio Carlos.
The quarter-finals are down for decision Wednesday.
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