01 Jun Farron-Mahon reaches semi-final in Egypt
Tristan Farron-Mahon enjoyed an excellent week on the professional tour when he recorded his best performance at an ITF Futures event in Alexanderia, Egypt last weekend. The Italian based Dubliner progressed to the semi-finals of the $10,000 Futures competition in a series of gruelling matches with three out of his four matches during the week stretching to three sets.
The Irish right-handers most notable win cam in the second round of the event when he came up against the no.4 seed, Russia’s Mikhail Vasiliev. The opening set of the match clearly showed the gulf between each players respective rankings as Vasiliev, currently ranked 461 in the world, stormed through the opening set 0-6. After such an opening set most players in Farron-Mahon’s position would have held little hope of a change in the second set but the Irishman kept his cool in the Egyptian heat and clawed his way back into the match, grinding out a tough 0-6, 6-3, 6-4 win.
Tristan came out on top in another tough contest against Omar Hedayet of Egypt, another marathon match which was decided on a third set tie break. After such a gruelling sequence of matches Farron-Mahon was always going to face a major test to overcome his semi-final opponent, no.2 seed Joel Insuasti. Currently ranked 458 in the world the Frenchman was the hot favourite to progress to the final and duly delivered. However there were still signs of Tristan’s fighting spirit throughout the match and once more managed to take the game to three sets before eventually going out 6-3, 4-6, 6-2.
For a full list of results from the tournament click here