Battling McGee through

JAMES McGEE yesterday battled back from the precipice of a semi-final exit to pull off a remarkable victory in the Green Property Irish Men’s Open at the Fitzwilliam Club.

The 24-year-old Dubliner saved five match points when he found himself 15-40 and 5-6 down on his own serve in the third set of his penultimate joust against No 2 seed, Slovakia’s Miloslav Mecir.

As well, No 7 seed McGee stormed back from a 0-3 deficit in the final set to level at 3-3 all.

In the 12th game of the final set, 512-ranked McGee rallied back to deuce, but 299-ranked Mecir held advantage three times before the Davis Cup ace eventually levelled matters at 6-6.

And there was no stopping the Castleknock man in the tie-break, as the son of 1988 Olympic Games tennis singles gold medallist and former world No 4 Miroslav Mecir Snr, quickly found himself 1-6 adrift.

Commendably, the visiting player saved two match points, but McGee made no mistake at the third attempt to clinch a 6-2 6-3 7-6 (7/3) victory after two hours and 35 minutes.

But Barry King failed to qualify for a final clash against McGee, the unseeded Davis Cup hero losing to France’s top seed Charles-Antoine Brezac 6-0 6-4 after an hour.