HAVING confined his competitive visits home to the National Championships for the last few years, long time Irish squash number one Willie Hosey makes an earlier than expected appearance in Dublin this weekend when he competes at the Club Orange sponsored Westwood Open.
It is the first time the club has organised its own Open championships and the decision to fly Hosey back from his base in Canada for the event follows the enforced withdrawal of Derek Ryan due to a change in the date of his first match at the Tournament of Champions in New York.
Hosey's rivalry with Ryan has provided the focal point for the nationals over the past few years and the pair have produced a series of wonderful matches at the event, most notably the five game final of two years ago when the Carlowman battled back superbly to win his 10th title.
Whether the former international returns for this year's event will be says, depend to a large extent on how he performs in this weekend's event as he seeks to assess his early season fitness before embarking on a busy schedule of tournaments around North America.
"I've had a groin strain on and off since around May when I played in the Canadian nationals and I ended up virtually completely resting through June, July and August. Everything feels fine at the moment".
At the moment Hosey feels that his fitness is only 80 per cent of what it might be, but after the long lay off the plans to take in events in New York (the Tournament of Champions has a teaching professionals section in which he is seeded number one), Detroit and a couple of Canadian cities which, he hopes, will build him up sufficiently for another assault on the Irish title.
"I wouldn't come back unless I thought I was 100 per cent but if this weekend goes well and I feel I'm playing well over the next few weeks then I'll certainly be thinking about it when the time comes.
With Ryan, Chris Collins and Stevie Richardson, who has just moved to London, unavailable to play, the Carlowman's main rivals are likely to be Irish internationals Maurice Collins and Eoin Ryan while Ed Dunne is also seeded to make it through to this evening's semi finals.
The women's event, meanwhile, has suffered somewhat as a result of its clash with the World Team Championships in Kuala Lumpur where Louise Finnegan, Aisling McArdle, Madeline Perry and Olivia French are due to start their group matches early next week but, in their absence, an eight woman A section draw is headed by Anna McGeever and Jenny Dillon.
McGeever makes her first appearance of the weekend this morning when she takes on Irene Fenelon of the host club.
