Enniskillen’s Matthew McGann pictured with US tennis star Venus Williams
THE Enniskillen tennis coach Matthew McGann now has a world ranking after competing at the World Senior Individual and Team championships in Florida, America.
Matthew won his first singles match in the individual championships, defeating American Wild card Anthony Cottone in a match that lasted two and a half hours 4-6, 7-6, 6-4.
He didn’t have much time to celebrate the achievement however, as the next day he faced Morgan Young from Australia, world ranked number 25 and 7th seed.
Facing an opponent over six foot Matthew put up a hard fight, but eventually lost out 6-2, 6-3.
Due to Matthew’s sterling efforts he has now gained world ranking points and is officially ranked 530 out of over 1,000 in his senior over 40s category.
Matthew was also part of the Irish team that competed in the World Team Championships.
The tournament began with round robin groups, with Ireland facing India on Monday and Austria on the Tuesday.
They were to beat India 3-0, before losing to Austria 2-1. The Austrians had two former professionals in their ranks and Matthew faced off against 6ft 2 Gerard Mandl, who previously had a career high ranking of 186.
Finishing second in their group Ireland faced Switzerland for a finishing place of 8th to 11th.
Matthew played doubles and although he played his part in winning the match, Ireland lost 2-1. Dropping into the 12th/13th play-off Ireland faced Mexico where Matthew faced their number one Ricardo Langre. The team performed well and Ireland recorded their highest ever finish of 12th out of 23.
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