Tennis Master's FinalsThe best thing with teenagers is always to let them have their way. That's the view the organisers took when Mariana Levova and Rachael Dillon threatened not to play yesterday evening after they were put onto a court at Castleknock with a wall only feet from the tramlines and on a surface that was different to the one they had knocked up on.
The 16-year-old Bulgarian and 18-year-old Dubliner huffed a little and said "no we won't" a few times, until they were finally and quite rightly moved to a different court just as a swirling wind picked up in the Danone Masters' Series Finals.
They were not conditions conducive to great tennis, with the gusts affecting serve particularly. But Levova was unconcerned as she went about it in her no-nonsense way and stamped her mark against the older opposition in the first set.
After early service exchanges, Levova went 5-4 up and then broke Dillon's serve for the first set.
In the second set she lifted the tempo further with a succession of well-placed ground-strokes, especially from her double backhanded side.
Dillon, playing with a heavily bandaged ankle after standing on a ball during training some months ago, was far from fit, and Levova's hard shots hit wide were a given point, and she took the second set 6-3.
She now meets Leslie O'Halloran in the semi-final in a match where more than 20 years separates the ages. O'Halloran came through in three sets against 16-year-old Jenny Claffey. In a tetchy match, O'Halloran lost the first set 4-6, before taking the next two from the Theresian schoolgirl 6-4, 6-4.
Yvonne Doyle, a serial winner in this summer's tournaments, had an easy enough path against Vanessa Newman, dropping just one game on her way to the semi-final.
Doyle now meets Ann Marie Hogan, who will have a tough task making the final on Saturday.
Hogan won a first tight set against Lisa Lawlor, 7-6, before taking the second 6-4.
In the men's event, the two big names advanced to the semi-finals under the Castleknock floodlights. Davis Cup players Stephen Nugent and Peter Clarke earned two-set wins over Michael Hayes and Daniel Glancy respectively.
Those results mean that Nugent, who had a recent win in the Co Wicklow Championships, and Clarke, will face each other in today's semi-finals. Both had straightforward victories in the difficult conditions, with Nugent sweeping aside Hayes 6-2, 6-0, and the hard-hitting, Australia-raised Clarke getting the better of Glancy 6-1, 6-3.
On the other side of the draw, Gareth Doran defeated Ulster's Nelson Boyle 6-2, 6-2 to earn a meeting with Conor Taylor, who came through in two sets against Simon Wrafter 6-3, 6-4.
MASTERS SERIES FINALS
WOMEN: Y Doyle bt V Newman 6-0, 6-1; M Levova bt R Dillon 6-4, 6-3; A M Hogan bt L Lawlor 7-6, 6-4; L O'Halloran bt J Claffey 4-6, 6-4, 6-3. Semi-finals: M Levova v L O'Halloran, Y Doyle v A M Hogan.
MEN: S Nugent bt M Hayes 6-2, 6-0; P Clarke bt D Glancy 6-1, 6-3; G Doran bt N Boyle 6-2, 6-2; C Taylor bt S Wrafter 6-3, 6-4. Semi-finals: S Nugent v P Clarke, G Doran v C Taylor.
