Signature Munster Senior Open 2006

Following a weekend of competition at all levels over 3 cork venues, the Signature Munster open Squash championships concluded with the finals of all grades at Sundays Well Boating and Tennis club on the Mardyke earlier this afternoon.
The Mens A final brought together the current top two Irish-born players as the no. 1 seed, Dubliner Derek Ryan met Galway’s John Rooney who had began the competition in the no. 2 rank. Both players are former winners of this tournament with Rooney winning in 2003 and Ryan’s most recent triumph occurring in 2002.
Ryan, for many years, the dominant force in Irish Squash began the final in fine style clinically executing winners and accumulating a 6 points to love lead in the first game. However, this lead was hard won on the back of some punishing rallies. A contended refereeing call at 6-0 signalled a change in fortunes for the game. Rooney who got the decision seemed to gain an upper hand on a disgruntled Ryan and steadily clawed back the score to draw level at 6-6. The remaining points of the game were all won by Rooney, each time forcing an error from Ryan.
The second game began very competitively with service changing a number of times in the early stages, however Ryan appeared to be tiring much more so than 26 year old Rooney and as the game developed, Rooney started to dominate, eventually winning 9-2.
The third and final game continued the trend with Rooney dropping no further points to finish the game in 38 minutes and record his first competitive win over Ryan. The victory also signals a positive progression on the road back to full recovery from a chronic fatigue illness which Rooney suffered from during the 2004/2005 season. This led to him withdrawing from the international PSA (Professional Squash Players Assoc.) circuit. Cork spectators witnessed him retiring during last years final of this tournament against Liam Kenny as he attempted a previous comeback. Now based in London and back in training with other professionals, he appears to be regaining much of his previous fitness to ally with his undoubted talent.

With the Irish Ladies team on duty at the World Championships in Canada at present, the stage was set for a new champion. In a round-robin format, it was the young Carlow players, Ciara Moloney and Roisin Brennan who led the way with the significant match of the section proving to be their Saturday morning meeting. After initially struggling against Brennan, it was Moloney who proved the stronger, eventually winning out on a 3 games to 2 scoreline.

In the Mens B section, an all Sundays Well final on their home court saw no. 1 seed, Ken O’Keeffe triumph over veteran international, Neil O’Sullivan on a 3-1 scoreline.