January 2015 Newsletter

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Welcome to this month’s eZine

2015 is upon us and you can catch up on how James McGee, Louk Sorensen & Bjorn Thomson got on in their bid to make the main draw of the Australian Open last week. The Fed Cup team prepare for their tie in Estonia next month. TI join forces with Pledge Sports to help Irish juniors on tour.Tickets go on sale for the Davis Cup tie in March and the new captain is announced. The 2015 national Indoors champions are revealed and AIG our partner in business has another attractive offer for our members.

Irish players feeling the heat in the Australian Open

James McGee and Louk Sorensen saw their bid to make it to the main draw of the Australian Open come to an end last week. In the first round Sorensen met too strong a challenge in the French man Vincent Millot, ATP ranking of 153 and went out in straight sets. McGee defeated the no 12 seed, Slovakian Norbert Gombos in the first round in 3 sets 1-6 6-3 6-2. In the second round he faced the 24 yr old Australian Dane Proppagia who on front of a home crowd managed to secure the victory in 6-3 6-4.

In Juniors Bjorn Thomson played Australian Wildcard hopeful Dimitri Morogiannis and won comfortably 6-3 6-0.
In the second round he met Christian Sigsgaard from Denmark and was unfortunate to lose on a scoreline of 6-3 6-3. His preparations for the tournament were hampered early in January when he had to withdraw from the national indoors due to illness.

The Irish team to play in the Fed Cup by BNP Paribas Euro/Africa Zone Group II take off for Tallinn Estonia this weekend. The draw takes place Tuesday next and matches get underway on Wed 4th – 7th February 2015.

The team gained promotion to group ll after a very successful campaign under the experienced captain Yvonne Doyle. Yvonne will will once again lead the team of Ireland’s no 1 Amy Bowtell joined by Rachael Dillon, Julie Byrne, and Lauren Deegan

The Group, a round-robin style tournament, will have two pools of four teams. Other nations involved are:

Bosnia/Herzegovina, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, Luxembourg, Slovenia and South Africa. The team’s progress can be followed HERE

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Save on your Home and Car Insurance with AIG!

As Official Sponsor and Insurance Partner of Tennis Ireland, AIG is offering exclusive discounts on our already competitive range of insurance products to Tennis Ireland members – save up to 20% on car, home and travel insurance, personal accident cover and more!

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To get your quote today, please go to www.aig.ie/tennis or call our customer service team on 1890 68 27 27 and make sure to mention you are a Tennis Ireland member to avail of your discount!

We look forward to looking after your insurance needs.

Best regards,

The AIG Direct Team

	Tennis Ireland launches fund to Secure future of Irish Tennis January , 2015 The Elite Players Fund, launched on online crowdfunding platform PledgeSports.org, has been set up to raise €25k to provide for players travel expenses and to allow their coaches to attend international competitions with them. To find out how you can support the cause Read more here https://www.pledgesports.org/projects/elite-players-fund-2/

	Conor Niland appointed Irish Davis Cup Captain Tennis Ireland has announced the appointment of Conor Niland as the Irish Davis Cup Captain for a two year period commencing with immediate effect. Conor succeeds Garry Cahill, who resigned from the position late last year after a very successful four year stint in charge. The 33 year old is Ireland’s most successful professional tennis player reaching a career high ATP ranking of 129. In 2011 he was the first Irish player to play at Wimbledon in 31 years and he followed that up with a first round appearance at the US Open against Novak Djokovic. Conor played Davis Cup for a ten period and as recently as 2012 under the stewardship of Garry Cahill. He had a distinguished career for the Irish Davis Cup team winning 17 of the 29 matches he played in since making his debut in 2000 at the age of 18. He retired from professional tennis in 2012 and commenced a role as Coach with the BNP Paribas National Tennis Academy in Dublin City University. Full story below. https://www.tennisireland.ie/news/general/2015/1401/conor_niland_is_new_davis_cup_captain_


	Congratulations to Simon Carr and Karola Bejenaru the new 2015 Irish Senior National Indoors champions. The tournament took place in Westwood Leopardstown on Dec 27th-31st.The Mens draw was left slightly unbalanced with the No 1 seed Bjorn Thomson forced to withdraw in the hours leading up to the start of play due to illness.However this in no way detracts from the achievements of the eventual winner Simon Carr. At only 15 years of age he gave a real glimpse of his talent defeating the no 2 and 4 seeds on his way to the final. In the final he defeated the no 3 seed Vuk Budik in a closely contested match In the ladies event Belfast based Karola Bejenaru defeated Monstown TC’s Julie Byrne.More on this news item www.tennisireland.ie/news/general/2015/0601/senior_national_irish_indoor