Ireland's men's tennis team lost all hope of even attaining a reasonable showing in the European Nations Team Championship when losing 2-1 to Austria at the Enka Club in Istanbul on Saturday.

Team manager Peter Wright expressed disappointment that his team had only won a dead doubles rubber against the Austrians on Saturday, after previously being whitewashed by Slovenia.

Owen Casey got close to winning his singles against Markus Kanellos when serving for the match in the final set at 5-4, although his service game failed him and he lost out in two hours and 12 minutes 6-3 3-6 7-5.

Scott Barron only lasted one hour and 44 minutes against Oliver Marach who clinched it in a second set tie-break 7-2.

Casey and Barron won the doubles 4-6 6-0 6-3.