TENNIS/Women's Irish Open: Seldom has an Irish player met with such consistent success on the ITF's $10,000 women's circuit as Dubliner Karen Nugent. The doughty full-timer raced through to yet another final at the Castleknock club yesterday when beating Lucy Fletcher of Britain.
Nugent has won the County Dublin Championship and the Leinster title in successive weeks as a prelude to this afternoon's Irish Open decider, which she contests for the second year this time, against Australian Dubravka Cupac.
The prospect of an all-Irish final was precluded when Yvonne Doyle was surprisingly ousted 6-1, 6-1 by an in-form Cupac.
Nugent's form has lit up the Irish women's tennis scene. She continues her unrelenting search for more WTA ranking points in Wrexham and Cumberland next week.
Her tactics were perfect against the left-hander Fletcher, who was generally on the back foot, especially when trying to cope with the superbly wide placement of Nugent's serve.
The Dubliner's power game, which has seen her lose only six games in the tournament to date, began to tell early when her returns helped her make two breaks for a 4-0 lead.
Doyle never reached the heights she had attained in her quarter-final dismissal of the top seed, Eden Marama of New Zealand.
This time Doyle struggled to salvage only two games in the brief encounter.
RESULTS - Singles semi-finals: D Cupac (Aus) bt Y Doyle 6-1, 6-1; K Nugent bt L Fletcher (Brit) 6-0, 6-1. Doubles final: Yvonne Doyle and Karen Nugent bt L Du Plessis (RSA) and R LLewellyn (GBR) 6-2, 6-1.
