Mallow's Killian Carroll to face Galway'sMartin Mulkerrins meet in singles decider

By Paul Fitzpatrick

Cork’s Killian Carroll and Galway’s Martin Mulkerrins will meet in today’s Open Singles final at the World Handball Championships in Minnesota.

The big news was that five-time defending champion Paul Brady – who hadn’t lost a singles match at the Worlds since the 2000 semi-final in Chicago – was dramatically forced to withdraw with an ankle injury.

Brady picked up a grade two sprain to his right ankle with the scores tied at 5-5 in the first game last Thursday against Mexican Luis Cordova and while he limped to a courageous straight games win against the sixth-ranked American, the ankle injury was too severe and the Cavanman was forced to pull out.

That left Mulkerrins (24) straight through to today’s final (5pm Irish time) where the extra day’s rest may make him a very slight favourite to overcome the Boston-based Mallow native.

McCarthy came out shooting to win the first game against Carroll on a 21-13 scoreline but while the early exchanges in the second set were tight, from 12-8, Carroll elevated his game to win convincingly and force a decider.

Carroll started sharply in the tiebreaker, racing into an 8-1 lead with an awesome display. What looked like a turning point arrived when two line judges over-ruled referee David Steinberg on a short serve call but a gassed McCarthy could not capitalise and only forced two more points as Carroll won going away.