26 Jan John Morrissey goes out to Australia’s Alex Sanders in Melbourne
John Morrissey’s first Junior Grand Slam singles adventure came to a stop in the early hours of Monday morning (26th January 2009). After advancing into the Main Draw of the Australian Junior Open with a brace of excellent wins during the two rounds of qualifying John was drawn with Australian ace Alex Sanders, one of Australias leading Juniors and former Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy member. With such a CV and home support, Sanders would always prove to be a formidable opponent for the young Blackrock native and the Gold-Coast right-hander came out on top after two sets.
But John more than held his own against a player currently ranked No.44 in the world, and battled hard in both sets before bowing out in the second set tie-break. The final score after one hour forty-six minutes of play was 7-5, 7-6(3).
There was to be better news for the 16-year old Dubliner in the Double’s Draw where John paired up with James Chaudry of Great Britain where they met the wild card pairing of Andrew McLeod and Todd Volmari, both from Australia. The Anglo Irish pairing came through with a comfortable win in Melbourne Park 6-3, 6-0 and will face the No. 7 seeded pair of Francis Alcantara (Phillipines) and Cheng Peng Hsieh (Chinese Taipei) tomorrow morning.
For further reports on John’s progress through the Junior Astralian Open click here