Delight for Gannon with surprise Irish Open success

Conor Gannon won the DLR Irish Open after beating Estonia's Markus Molder 7-6 6-7 6-4 in a men's final that nearly hit the three-hour mark at Carrickmines Croquet and Lawn Tennis Club.

It's a maiden singles ITF title for the Dubliner as he became the first home player to win the historic competition since Pete Bothwell in 2018.

Gannon defeated fifth seed Dimitris Azoidis, third seed Matt Ponchet and second seed Daniel De Jonge on the way to the final.

It was seventh seed Molder in his way today, with the experienced Davis Cup man coming good to win by a single break in the deciding set.

Gannon was struggling to take in his achievement: "It still hasn't really sunk in yet. It's been a long time since an Irish person won this.

"I'm just so happy and proud of myself that it's me that's able to do it and I kept believing and kept pushing. I'm just absolutely over the moon to be honest.

"It could have been really easy to come back out in the third set and be very flat and very deflated but I tried my best to put my best foot forward and give myself the best chances of crossing the line.

"I think I did a tremendous job of keeping the energy and just keep believing in myself and not getting so down and being my own best friend out there.

"I think throughout I played a pretty solid match. I think I played very well, served very well and was very focused."

Gannon felt the Dublin Challenger event held in Donnybrook in June was a huge help to him.

He defeated former Wimbledon quarter-finalist Bernard Tomic in Donnybrook to boost his confidence.

"I thought it was a huge stepping stone in my career. It really validated that I can go very far in this sport and that I can be a positive character influence for a lot for younger generations that I had when I was growing up so that's a huge motivation for me. That's the thing, if we have more tournaments like that there's going to be more Irish people coming through.

"Look at the Irish people that were in the main draw this week, I think there was maybe seven or eight and look when we had the first one back here after Covid I think there was only three people and they were all wild cards.

"It's definitely going in the right direction and it's great to see and I'm absolutely delighted that an Irish person can win this week."

In the women's final, 18-year-old Vendula Valdmannova lifted the trophy after a 6-1 7-6 victory over Amelia Rajecki.

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