Preview | 2025 Irish Open
Alastair Gray and Michael Agwi lead a strong men's field while the women's draw looks very open
After a well regarded hosting last year, the Irish Open returns to Carrickmines CLTC this week.
12 months ago, Ben Jones and Alice Gillan made it a double triumph for Great Britain as they conquered their respective singles events.
Jones returns to defend his M15 title this year, but it could be a tall order given the strong field that includes top Irish players and some high level players from across the Irish Sea.
Meanwhile, the W15 event looks set to be very competitive after the recent withdrawals of Gillan, last year’s finalist Aleksandra Julia Zuchanska, former champion Emily Appleton, and one-time top 30 performer Tamira Paszek.
The full draws will be out on Monday with the tournament set to run from Tuesday July 29th to Sunday August 3rd. When all points have been played, each singles champion will walk away with just over $2,000 (€1,700) each.
Men's Draw
With a current ATP ranking of 359, Alastair Gray is the top player in the men’s draw. The 27-year-old, who represented Texas Christian University in NCAA, has been as high as world no.237 and recorded first round victories at Wimbledon in both singles and doubles. The Londoner is in good form with three ITF M25 titles already this season from Glasgow, Bhopal and Indore.
Glasgow’s Hamish Stewart is not far from Gray at 448 in the rankings after a strong run of form. The 25-year-old earned an M15 title in Bucharest earlier this year and recently collected a series of wins on grass as he made the final round of Wimbledon qualifying, and then the semis of the Nottingham Challenger. Away from singles, Stewart is having a terrific season in doubles with six titles already on the ITF Tour.
James Story, defending champion Ben Jones, and Emile Hudd round out the British cluster ranked between 500 and 700. 24-year-old Story made the final of Monastir earlier this year while Jones and Hudd have each made a semi-final runs in 2025. Jones is actually close to his highest career ranking and may get a further confidence boost returning to Carrickmines.
Irish interest is led by our standout performer in last year’s Davis Cup tie with Austria, Michael Agwi. The exciting 21-year-old kicked on from that special week in Limerick and finished 2024 with four ITF titles and a ranking just outside the top 400.
Agwi then had a difficult start to 2025, with a victory in the Davis Cup tie with Saudi Arabia one of the few wins he secured in the early months. Thankfully, his form has picked up recently and Agwi made the semi-finals of Kotka in May before deep runs in Kamen and Marburg.
As anyone who witnessed his performances in Limerick can attest to, Michael can play at a very high level indeed and we will hopefully see some of that in South Dublin over the next week.
Another standout player during the loss to Austria was Conor Gannon. The 23-year-old just participated at the World University Games in Germany and made the round of 32 in singles. Recently featured in an Irish Times piece (€), Gannon will look to the Irish Open as a springboard for the rest of the season as he aims to get inside the ATP’s top 1000.
Spectators at Carrickmines may also be intrigued to get a look at Ireland’s latest recruit, Peter Buldorini. The 20-year-old was born in Italy but his mother hails from Carrick-on-Shannon. Buldorini announced that he would represent Ireland in February and currently sits just inside the ATP's top 1,000.
Ammar Elamin also represented Ireland in the University Games and did very well to make the last eight in singles. Other Irish players to look out for include Under-18 National Indoor Champion Eoghan Jennings, and possibly Zachary Murphy and Cian Maguire if they make it through qualifying.
Finally on the men’s side, there are a couple more noteworthy entries.
18-year-old Charlie Robertson made the semi-finals of the US Open juniors last year and has taken one of the designated places in the draw for outstanding juniors. We are also expected to have the presence of 19-year-old Pavlos Tsitsipas, who is of course the younger brother of the ATP star, Stefanos.
Women's Draw
It is unfortunate that neither of last year’s finalists, or former champion Emily Appleton could make it this week, but that does open the draw for the remaining entrants. There is arguably no clear favourite this week with the eight highest ranked players in a range from 612 to 855.
21-year-old Astrid Cirotte leads the field with a current WTA ranking of 612. The Frenchwoman is in good form too with a couple of singles finals in recent months and two doubles titles for the year to date.
Close behind Cirotte we find the world no.646, Esther Adeshina. The 23-year-old from Hampshire recently graduated from the University of Tennessee after representing them in NCAA. On the ITF Tour, Adeshina was a finalist just this month in Kayseri and has claimed two doubles titles so far in 2025.
Another Frenchwoman of note is world no.725 Chloe Noel. The 21-year-old has picked up plenty of victories this season and reached two finals in the past couple of months. Other visitors worth a mention include Iveta Dapkuté, Victoria Allen, Anja Wildgruber and in particular, Germany’s Ida Wobker.
Like Charlie Robertson in the men’s draw, Wobker earns her place in the draw due to her junior ranking of 71 in the world. Still aged just 14, Wobker is now competing on both the junior and senior ITF tours and she’s racking up wins all over the place. She reached her first ITF senior final last month and is now the youngest player in the ITF’s top 1000. Supported by former Fed Cup captain Barbara Rittner, Wobker may just be a star of the future.
In terms of local support, there will be no players more popular than club members Sinead Lohan and Ruth Copas. Lohan and Copas have been long time servants for Ireland in the Billie Jean King Cup and Sinead just secured her sixth County Dublin Championships trophy.
The other Irish players in the draw are world no.845 Celine Simunyu, Under-18 National Indoor Champion Jenny Marsh, Rachel Deegan and possibly four qualifiers from the group of Sarah Hawkshaw, Kate Gardiner, Chloe Collins, Leah Puk, Lisa Ryan, Juliana Carton and Lydia Brennan.
Carrickmines CLTC is one of the oldest clubs in Ireland and a more than suitable host for the Irish Open. In the build up to the tournament, I wrote up a profile on a club that dates back to 1903 and has an extraordinary history both on and off court. You can read it on Tennis Ireland.
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