There were mixed fortunes for the Irish players in the opening round of the Open Singles at the oneills.com World Wallball Championships at the University of Limerick, with two of the home contenders bowing out.
Wexford duo Mark Doyle and Joe Devereux fell to American Johnson Gonzalez and Team UK star Christian Blackaby respectively.
Doyle, who is studying in Minnesota on a handball scholarship and returned home for this event, took the first game 21-9 but dropped the second 21-17 and was edged out in an 11-9 tiebreaker.
Also out of luck was Kilkenny’s Shane Dunne, who won the first game 21-18 against American Arthur Sayed but dropped the next two (21-20, 11-8).
Meanwhile, Devereux was beaten 21-14, 21-13 by the rangy Englishman.
There was better luck for Cormac Finn of Sligo, one of Ireland’s official representatives in the Open Doubles, who advanced to the quarter-final of the singles with a thrilling win over Basque Mikel Beldarrain.
The Basque won the opener 21-5 but Finn found his range to force a tiebreaker with a 21-10 win in game two.
Beldarrain led 10-6 in the deciding set but Finn, by now playing an all-out attacking game, turned it around for a memorable 11-10 victory.
Elsewhere, American Julio Carlos had a comfortable victory over Moldovan Gheorge Becciv (21-3, 21-4) while Palestine’s Mohamad Mansi defeated England’s Dan Grant, also in a close tiebreaker.
Meanwhile, Ireland has its first world champion after Limerick’s Martina McMahon won the ‘small ball’ Open Singles division against USA’s Myohwa Hwee in straight games.
The ‘small ball’ game is primarily played in New York; the ‘big ball’ form of wallball is the dominant code and represents 90% of the grades this week.
The brilliant McMahon is among the favourites in the big ball Open Singles also.
Number one seed Conor McElduff is in action on Tuesday at 4.30pm against Mansi.
The other round of 16 matches include Tyrone’s Paul Donnelly versus Basque Lur Ziarrusta, young Armagh gun Fiachra Ó Dúill against Julio Carlos, with English number one Luke Thomson taking on Arthur Sayed.
