IRISH INT’L QF – Magee Magic

Chloe Magee defeated number 1 seed Elizabeth Cann in this morning’s quarter-finals at the Irish International being held in Dublin.  Magee had double reason to celebrate as she also progressed to the mixed semi-final along with her brother Sam to keep the Irish hopes alive.

Photos and article by Mark Phelan (Live in Dublin)

After a disappointing exit in the second round by Ireland’s big hope for the tournament, Scott Evans, the burden of expectation fell on the shoulders of the Magee siblings (pictured) from Donegal in North West Ireland to carry the Irish dream.

Early in the morning session, the Magee siblings carried off a big shock in beating Middleton and Olver from England, who were much fancied to lift the title come Sunday. After losing the opening set the Irish bounced back to advance to the semi-final where they will now meet the vastly experienced Christian Skovgaard and Britta Andersen from Denmark.

“We played well today and we know that we have been improving this year so we had no fear going into this match. We showed good mental capabilites today to bring it back from a set down and now we have a semi-final to look forward to in front of our home crowd,” commented Sam Magee.

Chloe Magee then produced the match of her life in front of a packed home support as she upset the odds in defeating Commonwealth bronze medallist Elizabeth Cann in 2 sets. After facing the Danes in the mixed semi-final, the Donegal woman will have to regroup extremely quickly as she will play another Dane in the women’s singles semi-final an hour later.

“This has been a great week for me so far and the result against Elizabeth really gives me great confidence ahead of the semi-final,” said a happy Chloe Magee after her quarter-final success.

In the men’s singles, number 1 seed Hans Kristian Vittinghus (pictured) of Denmark continues to show the good form after winning in Norway as he comfortably sent fellow Dane, and last year’s finalist, Peter Mikkelsen packing to advance to the semi-final. There he will meet number 3 seed Matthieu Lo Ying Ping of France as the French ace ducked and dived his way to a 2-set win over Malaysia’s Krishnan.

In the other quarter-finals Spain’s Pablo Abian was a three-set winner over last year’s European tour winner Rune Ulsing while the flamboyant Finn Ville Lang was an easy 2-set winner of Ulldahl of Sweden.

In the men’s doubles, Clark and Langridge have had a convincing start to their Olympic journey and have advanced to the semi-final unseeded and untroubled.

For all results click HERE