Irish Sporting Eye

By Gerard Mulreaney ( @gerard_sports ) Ireland’s Simon Carr heads into the 2020 tennis season with great confidence after having what he described as ‘a breakthrough year’ in 2019. He secured his first ITF title in Tunisia in April, beating Christian Lindell of Sweden in straight sets, 6-1 6-3. Then, in July he helped Ireland to promotion into Group 3 of the Davis Cup, winning 4 out of his 5 matches.  Just before Christmas Carr (pictured above) finished of the year by reaching the semi-finals of the ITF tournament in Heraklion, Greece. He beat Ryan Nijboer, Jakub Paul and Stuart Parker on the way to the semis, eventually losing to 17-year-old Russian Alibek Kachmazov 7-5 6-3. When I spoke to him over the festive season, he was recharging his batteries as he looks to get himself further up the rankings in 2020. He was happy enough with the way 2019 went: “Yeah 2019 was a good year. It was a bit of a breakthrough year for me, winning my first futures title in singles,

By Gerard Mulreaney ( @gerardmulreaney ) When the Padraig Roche trained Open To The World won the Molony Cup Handicap Chase at Thurles last Friday, it gave 18 year old jockey Aidan Kelly from Monasterevin in Kildare his first winner.  Kelly didn’t realise he won until travelling head lad Pascal came out with a big smile on his face. He said: “I was delighted when I figured out that I had won. It’s great to have gotten a winner here in Ireland as it’s so hard to get rides.” Victory never really looked likely as Kelly, claiming 7lbs, was struggling in the final half mile. However, having ridden the mare ten times he thought he could get more out of her in the final stages: “Throughout the race the mare never really travelled well for me, but after riding her so many times I knew her inside out and thought she might pick up a bit of prize-money.  “I wasn’t expecting her to go out and win in the end. Jumping the last she had gotten in tight and I thought my chance of win