Curran doubles Irish interest

Wimbledon 2004Irish Federation Cup player Claire Curran has been drafted into the women's doubles main draw at Wimbledon with her partner, Britain's Jane O'Donoghue, bringing to two the number of Irish players competing this year. Ireland's Kelly Liggan and her partner Arantxa Parra from Spain are also in the main doubles draw.

It is believed that this is the first time in the open era that two Irish women have been involved in a main Wimbledon draw in the same year.

Curran, who played doubles at the US Open several years ago, following a successful collegiate career with Berkeley University in California, is considered something of a doubles specialist.

The news arrived yesterday that she and O'Donoghue would come in as lucky losers from the qualifying round, following the withdrawal of another team.

Curran won't meet Liggan unless both teams advance as far as the semi-finals. O'Donoghue is also one of four British players to have qualified for the second round of the singles competition.

The withdrawal from the tournament due to injury of the 20th- seeded Russian, Elena Bovina, also had a knock-on effect for Liggan yesterday. The Valencia-based player and her Spanish partner now play the lucky losers from the qualifying event, Barbara Schwartz and Jasmin Woehr, rather than Bovina and Australia's Alicia Molik.

That represents a positive change in fortune for the team as their original opponents were ranked much higher than their replacements. Liggan was originally expected to play her first-round match yesterday before bad weather played havoc with event schedules.

Her ranking in doubles is 128 and Parra's 93, which gives the pair a team ranking of 221 while that of Bovina and Molik was a combined 74. Schwartz is ranked 148 with Woehr at 130.