A double doubles triumph at the Irish Open for Clarkson

Date Published: 30-Aug-2012

A Galway teenager completed a remarkable at the tennis Irish Open last weekend, winning both the U-16 Boys’ Doubles and U-16 Mixed Doubles at the Fitzwilliam club in Dublin.

Mike Clarkson, the current Galway lawn Tennis Club Champion, is trained at GLTC by Jonathan Klampe and travels Malahide every Sunday for coaching with the Michael Nugent N-Zone Tennis Academy.

He has had a busy year between studying for the Junior Cert and still managing to play a few tournaments, winning the Castlebar Junior Open and reaching the singles finals at The Galway Senior Open and The Leinster Junior Open. He also won his first matches ITS matches (International U-18 Competition) this summer in Donnybrook and Rushbrooke.

Clarkson, who has now won more titles at Fitzwilliam than anyone in his age group, partnered Colin McNamara from Shankhill to victory in the doubles with a 6/2 6/4 win over Charlie O’Kelly and Eoin Kirk. In the mixed he teamed up with Nicola Drummy from Donnybrook to defeat Sam Bothwell and Emily Daly 6/4 6/4. Next up for Clarkson is the challenge of defending his GLTC Club Title starting on September 10.