It proved a gala day for Israeli tennis on Irish soil on Saturday, with two of that country's best battling it out for the title in the final of the ITF Futures event in front of an audience that included the Israeli ambassador to Ireland.

The winner was Nir Welgreen (22), who is en route to Roehampton for the Wimbledon qualifiers. He beat Amir Hadad in a decider that was tantalisingly brief, lasting only 58 minutes, due, in the main, to some devastating play by Welgreen. His absurdly early service returns were a defining feature of the match.

Welgreen led 3-0 in hardly any time at all, and although broken in the fifth game, he replied with an immediate break back before taking the set 6-3 in a little over a half an hour.

The second set opened with another break for Welgreen. "I felt he was weakening at this point," Welgreen said.

He served for the match after only 16 minutes of the second set and a break in the sixth game for Hadad only delayed the inevitable.

Welgreen intends to stay on the circuits for another two years "to see how it goes". He added: "If I haven't made it to the top 150 by then I will turn my attention to business."

The satisfying aspect of the event from an Irish perspective was that Stephen Nugent and Sean Cooper won their first ATP points.