Newry Tennis Club has its greatest ever success by winning the Leinster Provinical League Division 1 title
Newry Tennis Club has had its greatest ever success by winning Division 1 of the Leinster Provincial League.
A huge congratulations to the men who brought home the trophy to Newry for the first time in its history. The six-time Open singles champion Shane McAteer, 2024 Men’s Club singles champion Justy Philpott, legendary 15-time Men’s Open doubles champion Giby Vettiankal and 2024 Joint Mixed Doubles champion James O’Hare were the dream team. They had been ably assisted by Tim Smith and Alex Staselovich in previous rounds.
In Autumn 2024, Newry Tennis Club was invited to compete in the Leinster league for the very first time. Immediately the club won the Mixed Doubles at Division 2 and Division 4 levels. Our men’s team competed during Spring 2025 at the very highest level – in Division 1 and reached the final to play Carlow Tennis Club on their home courts. A tough ask for any club still finding their feet within the competition.
Justin and Giby would go undefeated during their league campaign whilst the incomparable Giby finished top of the statistics throughout all clubs.
In Match 1 Shane and James played the Carlow number one pairing of Aiden Lawlor and Guru Thiru. The first set was a close affair with both teams serving well up until 4-4 when a break of serve allowed Carlow to serve for the set.
In the second set Carlow stormed to a 3-1 lead and kept going to 5-2 before a great fight back from Shane and James got the scores close at 5-4 but ultimately it was in vain as Carlow closed the match 6-4 6-4.
Match 2 saw Giby and Justin take on the experienced Carlow pairing of John Nolan and Günter Bayer. After a back and forth opening six games, the scores were level in set 1 at 3-3 before Giby and Justin raised their level to win the set 6-4 and push home their advantage with a comfortable 6-2 second set win.
Match 3 saw Shane and Giby take on Guru and Günter. The Carlow team played great tennis in the opening games to go ahead 3-2 and a break of serve up before club legends Giby and Shane took it up a notch to win nine out of the next 10 games to go 6-4 4-1 up before sealing the tie 6-4 6-2 and put Newry just one match away from their most historic title in the club’s history.
The fourth and all important match saw the vastly talented Justin and James take on Aiden and John. Justin and James played a strong first set achieving an early break and holding out from a late charge to take the first set 6-4. The second set was a much closer affair. James and Justin again taking an early lead serving for the match at 5-3 before the Carlow pair came back strong to double break and lead 6-5 up. James and Justin once again broke to set up a second set tiebreaker.
In the tiebreaker Carlow started strong leading 3-1 before a tactical masterclass from the Newry pair, with Justin hitting deep backhands on numerous occasions and James finishing the volley at the net. With the score at 5-5 Aiden sent a bullet serve down towards James who played the return of his life from the next court over to win the point and allowing Justin to serve for a 7-5 tiebreak win.
The guys celebrated a historic title and it was a huge achievement for the club as this is at the highest level of league tennis in Ireland.