The Barnes sisters, Ruth and Alice, today have the chance to win through to a family reunion in tomorrow's final of the ITF K-Swiss world-ranking junior final at Riverview.
Ruth has the tougher task in her semi-final, facing Julia Smith, the number one seed and also of England. Smith has lost only five games en route to the penultimate stage.
Alice, the number five seed, who dismissed number two seed Anne Keothovang of Norway, faces seventh-seeded Elsa O'Riain of Cork.
O'Riain won an ETA event in Greece recently and is in form but yesterday she dropped seven successive games from 3-1 in the second set against Germany's Annette Kolb. O'Riain scraped through in the final set tie-break despite a nagging back strain.
The most famous example of sisters playing each other in a final is the Wimbledon decider of 1884, in which Maud Watson defeated sister Lilian 6-8 6-3 6-3.
In the boys' competition today, unseeded pair Ciaran Foley of Ireland and Philip Marx of Germany do battle in one semi-final and top seed Stephen Roche faces British number three seed Tom Higgins in the other.
Nugent yesterday was in control in his 6-4 6-1 dismissal of Dane Andreas Lauland but Higgins had a demanding match against another Brit, Chris Lewis, before emerging 6-4 7-5.
Boys - quarter-finals: S Nugent bt A Lauland (Den) 6-4 6-1. T Higgins (Bri) bt C Lewis (Bri) 6-4 7-5. C Foley bt R Shulver (Bri) 4-6 6-1 6-2. P Mark (Ger) bt N Bamford (Bri) 5-7 6-3 6-3. Girls - quarter-finals: J Smith (Bri) bt E Murphy 6-2 6-2. R Barnes (Bri) bt D Kelly 6-2 6-1. E O'Riain bt A Kolb (Ger) 6-3 3-6 7-6. A Barnes bt A Keothavong (Bri) 2-6 6-3 6-3.
Australian great Rod Laver was doing well yesterday after suffering a stroke and doctors said they expect a dramatic improvement in his condition over the next few months.
Dr Neil Martin, a neurosurgeon and director of the University of California at Los Angeles Stroke Centre, said Laver (59) had suffered partial loss of movement in his right hand, arm and leg.
"It is impossible at this time to say whether he is going to have a 100 per cent recovery," he said. "But I expect a dramatic improvement in his condition over the next few months."
