Ireland’s Sam Barry reached the semi-finals of the FBD Irish Open with a 6-2, 7-6 victory over Maxime Tchoutakian of France at Fitzwilliam LTC yesterday.

Ireland’s other quarter-finallist, Daniel Glancy, lost against Tom Farquharson 6-2, 6-4.t.

Barry started very well against Tchoutakian as he found his rhythm early on and broke the Frenchman’s serve in the third game. The Limerick man was hitting his forehand particularly well and was very aggressive in the opening set. Barry gained his second break of serve near the end of the set when Tchoutakian double faulted on break point, a problem which he had throughout the match.

There was a 40 minute rain delay at one game all in the second set which seemed to affect Barry’s momentum. Tchoutakian began to dictate play after the rain break, from his backhand. The Irish man showed great resolve to stay and got his reward when he broke the French man in the eighth game to lead by five games to three.

However, Tchoutakian then broke Barry, despite the 21-year-old having a match point and then comfortably held serve to level the set at five all before breaking the Irish number two again.

However, his service problems arose again with another double fault on break point bringing the second set to a tie-break. The Limerick man played a great tie-break, winning the breaker 7-3.

Daniel Glancy’s match in the evening match was delayed by 90 minutes, after just one game. Farquharson, who beat Ireland’s Colin O’Brien in the last round, raced through the first set. Things improved for Glancy in the second set. He had two break points early on which Farquharson saved . The British player finally broke Glancy to take the set and match by six games to four.

Barry will play his doubles partner and top seed Albano Olivetti in today’s semi-final after the French man beat Marcus Daniell 6-4 7-6. Second seed Daniel Cox beat Richard Gabb 7-6 6-1 in the other quarter-final.

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