McLuskey's confidence is boosted by title win

DOMINIC MCLUSKEY was the star at the recent Natwest Dorset Open in Poole. The Guernsey lad was part of a junior Channel Islands team that went over for the prestigious tournament held at the East Dorset tennis club.

During the week he won the under-16 title and the under-18 doubles and came runner up in the under-18 singles.

The number one seeded player at the tournament made the most of the experience as he goes off next month to train at the ISP tennis academy in Nice for a year. His victory over Callum Gee 6-0, 6-1 in the under-16 final was a real boost.

'It was good in the end,' said McLuskey.

'I had quite an easy ride into the final and then I beat him convincingly. I played really well and overpowered him.

'It gave me a lot of confidence.'

McLuskey came up against Gee again in the semi-final of the under-18 singles. It was tighter this time but the result was the same as the Sarnian won 6-3, 6-4.

In the final, the local tennis star faced the powerful 18-year-old, Lloyd Bruce-Burgess who is a full-time tennis coach.

The conditions were less than ideal as a light drizzle left the hard court surface slippery.

McLuskey struggled with his opponent's strong serves throughout the match to go down 4-6, 2-6.

'The guy in the final was bigger, stronger and more match tight than me,' said McLuskey.

'He broke my serve at the start of the first set and I couldn't get back. I wasn't getting any rhythm on my ground strokes.'

McLuskey quickly tasted success again in the under-18 doubles with his partner James Connelly from Jersey.

They overcame brothers Chris and Matthew Cole in a tight final. A championship decider was used instead of a third set because of a waiting ferry to take the Channel Islanders home.

The first set went to the brothers 6-2, but McLuskey and Connelly came back to win the next 7-5.

In the championship decider, the brothers were 8-3 up but sibling rivalry took over and they started to argue with each other and the CI boys came through to win 11-9.

Other successes for the Channel Islands team came from Jersey's Francesca Dubras who won the girls' under-16 singles and finished runner up in the under-18s.

Kirsten McArthur, also from Jersey, won the under-14 singles.

Team manager Hugh Raymond was very pleased at the end of the week.

'I'm absolutely chuffed to bits,' he said.

'We didn't expect to do as well as we did.

'The boys and girls did very well.'