On Tennis: Unsurprisingly, the frenetic activity in Irish tennis in Limerick and now at Brookfield Tennis Club in Dublin has not had as big an impact in London as say, the World Cup. The Futures event last week and again this week and the bigger $50,000 Challenger tournament next week represent a rich vein of high-level tennis that extends over three weeks and has $70,000 overall of prize money up for grabs.
However, while Wimbledon fails to notice its junior Irish sibling working hard to catch its attention, there are a number of players playing in the main draw at Wimbledon who have one eye on the All England club and another on Fitzwilliam. That alone is a conquest of sorts.
What? Professional tennis players travelling from London to Dublin? It's almost like the old days. Sepia-tinted photographs of Rod Laver, Yvonne Goolagong and Maria Bueno continue to adorn the halls and stairwells of the Fitzwilliam Club from Irish Open championships of old, when with some certainty you could say the weather was hotter and the tennis better.
Players ranked between 50 and 200 have to plan not just what event in what country they wish to play but also the tournament to which they can quickly catch a flight once they've been knocked out of their first-choice piece of work. So Ireland works for them.
There are several players listed for the Shelbourne Irish Open who are now playing at Wimbledon with their inclusion in Dublin obviously hinging on the success or failure of their first week on the grass over here.
Italy's Daniele Bracciali, ranked 54 in the world, Germany's Michael Berrer, ranked 116, Britain's Martin Lee, ranked 152, Denmark's Kristian Pless at 139, Romania's Razvan Sabau at 131 and Belgrade's JankoTipsarevic, ranked 101, are all on the start list for Dublin for next week. Some played their first-round games yesterday.
Of that bunch, Fitzwilliam could expect that Tipsarevic will soon be Dublin-bound, as yesterday he was due to face the fifth-best player in the world and twice Wimbledon finalist, Andy Roddick. But fading light prevented the match being played. Last year, on his second visit to Wimbledon, he made the third round before losing to Thomas Johansson, 6-2, 6-3, 6-1. That mark represented his best showing in 10 Grand Slam events.
He reached the quarter-finals at Nottingham last week as a qualifier, defeating Paradorn Srichaphan before losing to Sweden's Robin Soderling. The previous week, this former Australian Open junior champion defeated the Scottish hope Andrew Murray at the Queens tournament.
Qualifier Pless bowed out to one of the top seeds, American James Blake, on court 18, losing 6-3, 7-5, 5-7, 6-4. The Dane had played Wimbledon three times but it was his first time as a qualifier, as his ranking had slipped last year.
From a Dublin point of view, Pless has been a busy boy in Challenger events this year and has twice made it to semi-finals, in Joplin, USA, and Kyoto, Japan.
Bracciali's draw against Dominik Hrbaty was also a tough one, though he came through rather too easily, winning 6-2, 6-4, 6-4. At the French Open, the world number one, Roger Federer, observed Hrbaty was the player that most worried him on his way to the final. Still, Bracciali stays on for the second round, while Sabau departs after losing to Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber in three sets, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.
Berrer battled well before losing 4-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-3, 3-6 to Britain's James Delgado. Lee's match against Dick Norman was postponed by bad light. So that's some good news for the Irish Open. Perhaps not so great for the Irish interest.
