Stephen Ludgate | Deputy Sports Editor
The annual tennis intervarsities were hosted by DCU this year from the 27th of February to the 2nd March and the venue used to host the tournament was Westwood Leopardstown. The weekend highlighted the high standard currently seen in Irish college tennis and also produced some extremely dramatic matches with the men’s title being decided by the final few games of the deciding match. From a Trinity perspective, it was another extremely successful intervarsities defending both the men’s and ladies titles they won last year in Belfast. The ladies team were able to retain their title by beating UCD in the final while the men fell just short of a rare three in a row, losing 5-4 to DCU in the men’s final.
The ladies began the defence of their title early on Friday morning against the UCD 2nd team which, as expected, was an extremely one sided affair. The team won all six singles matches within an hour, taking an unassailable lead which meant that the doubles were not required to be played. They then faced UCC in the semi-finals who recorded a surprise victory over the DCU ladies in their first round match. This match began with doubles, which saw Sinead Kennedy and Hannah-May Morrissey teaming up for Trinity at first doubles. The pair, who are previous Irish University doubles champions, made short work of their opposite numbers from UCC to give Trinity a 1-0 lead in the tie. Stephanie Kinsella and Becky O’Hanlon played at number two doubles for Trinity and also recorded a victory, winning 6/2 6/4. Emma Sullivan and Eilis O’Connell played at number three doubles on the day and also recorded a win, not dropping one game on their way to victory. This 3-0 lead meant that the ladies only required two victories in the singles to secure their place in the final and it wasn’t long before Kennedy and Sullivan gave the team the victories they required and ensured that the team would defend their title against UCD on Sunday.
The final against UCD looked to be much closer on paper than the semi-final had been, and this proved to be the case with UCD winning one of the three doubles matches to make it 2-1 heading into the singles. The doubles pairings were changed slightly for the final with Kennedy partnering Kinsella at first doubles. They recorded a 6/3 6/4 win giving Trinity the first point of the day, beating the UCD pairing of Alison Clarke and Liis Naptal. O’Hanlon played with Morrissey at second doubles for the final but they lost out to Alexandra Drummy and Amy Ryan tying the scores at 1-1. The third doubles pairing remained unchanged for Trinity and Sullivan and O’Connell delivered the same result for the team as they had the previous day, defeating Rachael Nulty and Nicola Murray 6/1 6/2. Trinity now needed to win at least three of the six singles to retain their title and they got off to the perfect start. Ladies club captain Laura Gibney came back into the side after hockey commitments had ruled her out of the semi-final and justified her inclusion with a 6/0 6/1 rout of Nulty at fifth singles. Morrissey made amends for her loss in the morning’s doubles with a win over Naptal at second singles meaning that Trinity just required one more point. Amy Ryan got the better of O’Hanlon at fourth singles bringing the score back to 4-2 but it was only delaying the inevitable with both Kinsella and Sullivan up in their matches. It was Kinsella who delivered the final point for Trinity, winning 6/2 7/5 against Drummy which sparked celebrations for the Trinity team. The match at first singles between Kennedy and Clarke, which had been an extremely high standard match, was stopped, as was the final singles match where Sullivan had required just one more game for victory.
In the men’s competition Trinity safely negotiated their way through the first round match against NUIG on the Thursday, winning 9-0. It set up what looked to be a tough semi-final against UCD on Saturday however an incredible performance from the team meant that this wasn’t to be the case. The match began with doubles and Mark Carpenter and Julian Bradley put in a commanding performance to beat Steve Martin and Andy O’Connor 6/2 6/1. Karl Rogers and Tommie Murphy, the latter a masters student in Trinity after arriving back from a tennis scholarship at Berkley, beat Fergus O’Connell and Ben Dillon 7/6 (9-7) 4/6 10/8 in an epic match which was decided by a champions tie break. Ed Monbiot and Jack Devine played at third doubles and also recorded a victory, beating Ross Hurley and Declan O’Rourke 6/4 6/2. Julian Bradley, who will leave Trinity at the end of the year to take up a tennis scholarship in the university of Northern Florida, played at first singles and dismissed the UCD number one Stephen Martin 6/0 6/0 in under 45 minutes. Jack Devine then won at fifth singles against Andy O’Connor which meant that Trinity had secured the five points they needed which set up a final against DCU.
The final began at 1:00 PM on the Sunday afternoon, and got off to a disappointing start for the team. Trinity have historically been strong in doubles and would have hoped to take a lead into the singles but a strong start from DCU meant that this wouldn’t be the case. Rogers and Bradley teamed up for Trinity at first doubles and recorded a win against the DCU’s first pairing, dropping only one game in the process. Tommie Murphy and Carpenter played at second doubles but fell to the strong DCU pairing of Mick Lynch and Craig O’Neill, Lynch putting in a particularly strong performance on the day. Monbiot and Devine found themselves in an extremely tight match at third doubles against Roman Grogan and Luke Hennessy, losing out narrowly 7/5 6/4 which meant that DCU would take a 2-1 advantage into the singles. It was this advantage which proved to be decisive as the singles would go on to be shared, three apiece. Bradley continued his imperious form to dismantle the DCU number one Padraic Kilkoyne 6/1 6/0. Rogers was forced to leave due to work commitments which meant that Phil King stepped in for Trinity at sixth singles. He won his tie 6/3 6/2 to give real hope to the team that the four points required could be won. Monbiot was the next to finish and he also won, beating Hennessy 6/3 6/4 and putting Trinity 4-2 up in the tie. This was where Trinity’s momentum began to halt however as Grogan began to grind Murphy down at third singles. Grogan came through 6/3 6/2 and moments later Lynch pulled off the shock of the day, beating Carpenter 6/4 6/4. This tied the scores at four all and meant it all came down to the final tie between Devine and O’Neill. O’Neill had taken the first set 6/4, but with the support of his teammates, Devine fought back to win the second set 6/3 and take the match into the decider. Despite going an early break up, Devine was unable to hold onto his momentum and was eventually broken back by O’Neill to make it four all in the final set. The match could have gone either way but it was O’Neill who prevailed in an extremely tense finale and took the set 6/4, giving DCU its first title since 2011.
Photo: Aidan Broletta
