Mixed Fortunes For Home Hopes In Dublin

There were mixed fortunes for home players in the quarter-finals of the Cannon Kirk Homes Irish Open when defending women's champion Madeline Perry eased through to the last four without striking a ball, while Liam Kenny, the men's Irish national champion, failed to survive a 70-minute marathon against a higher-seeded opponent at the Fitzwilliam LTC in Dublin.

Top seed Perry, the world No9 who raced back from Commonwealth Games duties for Northern Ireland in Melbourne to defend her Dublin title, was handed an unexpected walkover when her opponent Dominique Lloyd-Walter, the sixth seed from England, was forced to withdraw with a stomach illness.

Perry, 29, from Banbridge, will now face Isabelle Stoehr for a place in the final after the fourth seed from France beat New Zealand qualifier Jaclyn Hawkes 9-1, 9-4, 10-9.

Liam Kenny put up a valiant fight against the talented Italian Davide Bianchetti, the number three seed. Bianchetti won the first game comfortably but Kenny played an impressive second to come back from 5-4 down to take the game 11-6. A closely-contested third game left the Italian ahead 2/1 and he rounded off the fourth game to claim an 11-3 6-11 11-6 11-3 victory in 70 minutes.

Bianchetti will now take on Renan Lavigne in the semi-finals after the No1 seed from France despatched unseeded Englishman Lee Drew 11-6 11-6 11-6 in 38 minutes.

The other men's semi-final will pitch England's No2 seed Simon Parke against Spaniard Borja Golan, the fourth seed. Golan, who last week clinched his 11th title at the Thessaloniki Open in Greece in only his 12th appearance in a PSA final, beat England's Scott Handley in just 18 minutes when the eighth seed retired injured at the beginning of the third game.

Parke ended the run of Hungary's unseeded Mark Krajcsak with an 11-4, 11-4, 11-6 victory in 44 minutes.

Men's quarter-finals:
[1] Renan Lavigne (FRA) bt Lee Drew (ENG) 11-6, 11-6, 11-6 (38m)
[3] Davide Bianchetti (ITA) bt [6] Liam Kenny (IRL) 11-3, 6-11, 11-6, 11-3 (70m)
[4] Borja Golan (ESP) bt [8] Scott Handley (ENG) 11-6, 11-1, 3-1 ret. (18m)
[2] Simon Parke (ENG) bt Mark Krajcsak (HUN) 11-4, 11-4, 11-6 (44m)

Women's quarter-finals:
[1] Madeline Perry (IRL) bt [6] Dominique Lloyd-Walter (ENG) w/o
[4] Isabelle Stoehr (FRA) bt [Q] Jaclyn Hawkes (NZL) 9-1, 9-4, 10-9 (52m)
[3] Annelize Naude (NED) bt [5] Pamela Nimmo (SCO) 9-4, 10-8, 9-5 (52m)
[2] Laura-Jane Lengthorn (ENG) bt [8] Tegwen Malik (WAL) 9-1, 9-7, 8-10, 9-4 (50m)