There were no major upsets in the opening round of the Men’s Open Singles at the O’Neills.com World 4-Wall Championships, with the top seeds entering the fray on Wednesday.
Tyrone man Caolan Daly will face Boston-based Cork native Killian Carroll in the Round of 32 after Daly recorded a 15-13, 15-6 win over Arizona’s Abe Montijo.
Elsewhere, Ian McLoughlin of Mayo fell in a tiebreaker (15-5, 14-15, 11-3) to San Francisco’s Loren Collado, with the American now facing Cavan’s Paul Brady.
There were also wins for Tipperary’s Ger Coonan against American Rene Lopez (15-5, 15-4), with Leixlip left-hander Niall O’Connor running out a comfortable 15-9, 15-5 victor against Colorado right-hander John Chapman, while Cork’s Tadhg Carroll beat Monaghan’s former All-Ireland minor champion Eoghan McGinnity (15-12, 15-8).
“I was a little bit nervous today, that was my first open singles game in the Worlds, I had played in the underage grades before,” stated former Tyrone Under-21 footballer Daly, who also plays senior football for Red Hand giants Carrickmore.
“I started to find my stride in the second game, but I’ll need to up it big time tomorrow against Killian to have any chance.
“I have a lot of training done in the last few months, I didn’t realise how much I had missed it until I got on the court today in front of a big crowd, so I’m really looking forward to tomorrow. Zero nerves now, I have nothing to lose.”
The Men’s Over-40s Singles Final will be contested by former senior stars Michael Gregan of Wicklow and Cork’s Brendan Fleming, who saw off Dominic Lynch (Kerry) and Joe McCann (Mayo) respectively.
The Men’s Open Doubles also serves off on Tuesday, with the Cavan-Monaghan pairing of Joe Dillon and Gavin Coyle meeting the Canada-USA team of Jerome Santerre and Rene Lopez.
Elsewhere, Tucson, Arizona pair Leo Canales and Abe Montijo face Irish duo Tadhg Carroll and Niall Malone, with O’Connor and Coonan taking on Collado and his 6ft 8in doubles partner Max Langmack.
In total, there are 1,675 entries in the tournament, with action continuing all week; the Open and Over-40 grades are based at the National Handball Centre in Croke Park, with the remainder at additional Leinster venues, principally Kilkenny.
The Ladies’ grades serve off on Wednesday.