OWEN CASEY and John Doran won too easily to generate any real excitement in the semi-finals of the Carlsberg Irish Close tennis championships at Donnybrook last night.

Casey's experience and shot selection proved too much for Tommy Hamilton while Doran's serve generally had George McGill on the back foot.

Casey was broken in the fourth game by his Davis Cup colleague Hamilton

"I showed him too much respect early on but he was playing well at that stage," said Casey. But from that point onwards Casey's game took off and Hamilton, the holder, faded at an alarming rate to lose out 6-4 6-1.

Doran undermined McGill early by racing to a 3-0 lead. Too many unforced errors spoiled McGill's chances of reversing the Davis Cup trial result between the two earlier in the week.

The match was expected to last longer than just over an hour. The same applied to the Casey-Hamilton semi-final.