Cork's Tony Healy will fly in the flag for Ireland in this year's US Open of Handball Men's Final in Los Cabelleros, California where he takes on Seattle’s Sean Lenning as the pair go to battle for $25,000.
There was a major shock in the quarter-final when reigning champion and world number one, Cavan's Paul Brady, was defeated by Arizona young gun, Luis Moreno, in an 11-10 tie-breaker thriller.
Brady was up 8-2 in the tie-breaker having lost the first 21-10, and taking the second on an identical scoreline.
Moreno went on to face Lenning but lost out 11-8 in another exciting tie-breaker tussle, leaving the Seattle showman to take on Healy in the final.
Healy defeated top US pro, Emmett Peixoto in two straight games to book his place in the final and will be confident of taking top honours.
The Cork man lost out to Brady in an 11-10 tie-breaker battle at the US Nationals, having held a 7-4 lead at one stage in the game. The Ballydesmond ace is long overdue a big victory stateside.
In the Men's Open Doubles, Calfornian duo, Eddie Chapa and Greg Ramirez earned a hard fought 11-10 tiebreaker win over hard-hitting Mayo pairing Dessie Keegan and Joe McCann to rule out any Irish contention in the final.
However, the 60+ Masters grade will see Dublin's Eugene Kennedy and Galway's Morgan Darcy renew rivalries in an all-Irish tussle, while Tyrone's Barry Devlin and Shane O'Neill go in search of glory in the Men’s C and B finals.
Roscommon duo, Oisin Naughton and Nigel Neilon will fancy their chances in the mixed grade doubles final having had a comfortable semi-final win.
