Kennedy and Keegan bound for Arizona
March 30, 2010Both players are top seniors on the Irish domestic scene and Kennedy lost out to Cavan's Paul Brady in last weekend's All-Ireland Senior Singles semi-final on a 21-16, 21-11 scoreline. Kennedy is seeded six at the event and will open his campaign on Thursday afternoon against New York's Billy O'Donnell.
"It's always great to play in the US courts, and I'm looking forward to the action in Tucson," said Kennedy.
"It's been a while since I competed in one of these events but it looks like it's going to be a cracking competition and hopefully things go well for me."
His traveling Irish counterpart, Keegan, is ranked ninth for the tournament and faces a tough opening game against Pennsylvania's David Fink. Fink and Keegan paired up in the Men's Open Doubles at the World Championships in Oregon last year but will be in opposing corners this time around.
The WPH (World Players of Handball) will run this inaugural season opener, which will include handballers from Ireland, Mexico and the US, in elite men's and women's events, with $4,000 up for grabs in the Men's Open division, in addition to the coveted yellow jersey. The WPH continues to commit to revitalizing the tradition-rich sport of Handball; a game with early ties to ancient Egypt played for nearly 4,000 years.
"Our mission is to provide a fun family experience while inspiring kids to take up this game using innovation and technology to market and publicize on a World-Wide level," said WPH Executive Director, David Vincent.
"For years, the sport of handball has demanded a higher level of respect and we are pleased to finally expose this ancient game to the masses through webcasting technology, network TV exposure and highly successful junior, collegiate and pro player events."
Action gets underway at the US venue at 11am local time tomorrow (Thursday). Tweet
