Fired up Fitzy still gunning for grand slams

Over 20 years on, Davy Fitzgerald still wants to win everything as badly as ever, writes Anthony Daly

When we went to Thailand with Clare on the team holiday after winning the All-Ireland in 1995, we spent a week in Pattaya. It was warm in Bangkok but the heat was something savage when we went further south. There were beads of sweat on my beads of sweat. All I was able for most days was to throw myself across a sun lounger.

A short stroll for a cold beer was an ordeal but, lo and behold, Davy Fitz and Jamesie O’Connor decided one afternoon to go playing tennis. It wasn’t just a few handy backhands and forehands across the net because it turned into a five-set epic. Neither of the two boys would back down. Both wanted to win. It was like Nadal and Federer before any of us knew who they were.