Fitzgerald crashes out as unseeded Dunne hits form

LEADING Munster junior player, Cork’s Paul Fitzgerald, suffered a disappointing defeat to unseeded Morgan Dunne in the Irish Junior Open tennis championship quarter-finals at Fitzwilliam yesterday.

It was a tricky assignment for Fitzgerald, seeded number four, for Dunne was quite an unknown quantity as far as current form was concerned.

Dunne, a Dubliner, who contested last year’s final without success, had swapped play on the court for his books when preparing for the Leaving Certificate.

Dunne’s current form suffered as a result and he didn’t merit a place among the seeds.

It was left in Fitzgerald’s court to sort out this problem and he seemed to be doing a good job of it when winning the opening set 6-3 but Dunne regrouped his talents to win the second set on a tie-break.

Once this was achieved, the Dubliner settled to produce next to his best form for a 6-2 win in the final set.

Up to yesterday, Dunne had only dropped one game on route to the quarter finals.

He lost that game in the first round and then received a walkover in the second.

Now, the unsuspecting Dunne falls into the path of James McGee, the number one seed and sound favourite for the title.

In the other semi-final to be played today James Cluskey, the No. 3 seed, takes on second favourite Eoin Heavey.

The girls' senior singles went according to plan with Joanie Macken, the top seed, ousting Munster’s Erica Maughan 7-5, 6-0. Ashley Wynne, a Leinster team-mate of Macken, will have the task of trying to upset the odds in today’s semi-finals.