23 Jan Sam Barry Suffers Narrow Defeat in Czech Republic
Sam Barry will be feeling a mixture of happiness and sadness after he crashed out of the Czech International Junior Open Championships in Prerov this evening (23rd January 2009). Sam was up against World No.40 Dominik Wirlend of Austria today and will feel desperately unlucky not to have advanced to the Semi-Final of the Grade One event after losing by the narrowest of margins 7-6, 1-6, 6-7. The young Limerickman was more than a match for the No. 1 seed from the outset and took the first set in a tightly contested tie-break where both players held serve throughout. The Austrian took command in the second set however, blasting through Barry’s service game to tie the match in the second set. Sam recovered in the final set, which began in a similar fashion to first with both players holding serve in the opening games. With the set tied at four games apeice the National Academy player was finally able to break Wirlend’s solid serve to go ahead 5-4 and serve out for the match. Wirlend held his nerve however to immediately break Sam’s serve to tie the game once more at 5-5. There was to be no further breaks in the set and with the match tied at 6-6 the passage to the Semi-Final would have to be decided by tie-breaker. With Wirlend determined not to drop another set through a tie-break battled hard and pressurised Sam before eventually winning the tie breaker and advancing through to the Semi-Finals of the Czech Championships.
Although the nature of the defeat will be tough to bear Sam will certainly be delighted with his all round performance this week as he will see his ranking climb to his highest ever position and into the Top 100 in the world at Under 18 level.
For more reports on Sam’s progress through the Czech International Junior Open click here