Ireland win despite the travel chaos

TENNIS FEDERATION CUP:THE INTERNATIONAL Tennis Federation has relaxed its rules governing the Federation Cup to accommodate Ireland following the air travel chaos out of Ireland.

Ireland’s Fed’ Cup team won the first match in Pool B of the Europe-Africa Group Three yesterday in Cairo against Malta despite the ITF rules stipulating that each team must have at least three players as well as a non-playing captain taking part.

Just two players, 16-year-old St Andrew’s College student, Amy Bowtell and 21-year-old Julia Moriarty made it to Cairo but their team-mates Lynsey McCullough, Niamh Coveney and captain Gary Cahill were stranded in Ireland because of the no-flight policy.

Bowtell arrived in Egypt following a tournament in France while Moriarty had just finished playing in Egypt. Cahill and Coveney finally departed for Cairo yesterday afternoon while Tennis Ireland officials continued efforts to secure a flight for the Belfast based McCullough.

“We approached the ITF and explained the situation we were in,” said a Tennis Ireland official. “They were aware of it. We told them that we had two players out there since last week and asked them if they would consider postponing the matches. They said that they would prefer to start on Wednesday but could maybe go to Thursday.

“We then told them that the two players had agreed to compete. They wanted to stay in Cairo and so the ITF relaxed the rules of their regulations and allowed us to commence with just the two girls. Since last Thursday we’ve booked a flight every time the airport has been open. We looked at lots of options including a ferry but that would have taken two days’ travelling and with a train strike in France thought it wouldn’t be so good. The good thing is that both Amy and Julia played their matches yesterday and won.”

One of the main concerns for Tennis Ireland was that as a teenager Bowtell, although an experienced traveller, is a minor. But Moriarty, who has never played Federation Cup for Ireland before, had her mother with her and she agreed to take charge.

“Although Julia’s mother is not a tennis coach she has been making sure that the two girls are okay and looked after correctly,” added the Tennis Ireland official.

Moriarty, who played as the Irish number one player, won her opener against Kimberly Cassar 6-4, 7-5 with Bowtell winning the earlier game with Elaine Genovese in three sets 6-3, 2-6, 6-3.

Moriarty has been playing competitively on the international women’s circuit and is currently ranked 679th, while Bowtell has been part of the Irish Fed Cup team for the last two years and has also been a successful member of the National Tennis Academy since 2001. With Ireland and Malta in Pool B are Morocco and Algeria, while Turkey, Moldova and Egypt make up Pool A.