Cavan star handballer, Paul Brady, confirmed his status as the top (40X20) player on the international circuit when he claimed an amazing fourth consecutive Men's Open Singles title at the prestigious USHA Four-Wall Nationals at the Overland Park Athletic Club, in Kansas City, Missouri, last Friday night. The defending champion and No. 1 seed had to battle heroically to retain his title against old adversary and No. 2 seed, Cork ace, Tony Healy in a cracking all-Irish final, over three games. The Cavanman, who is also the current World Men's Open Singles, US Open Of Handball Men's Open Singles and All-Ireland (40X20) Men's Senior Singles champion, has now firmly established himself as the undisputed master of the small or international (40X20) court and despite the Corkman's legitimate pretensions to the crown, the Breffni maestro steadfastly reigns supreme. The pair have conducted many a "battle royale" over the years and their last meeting in April had a similar outcome with Brady bagging his fourth consecutive All-Ireland (40X20) Men's Senior Singles crown in another thrilling final, again over three games. Each player went into Friday night's final with a specific agenda, Brady bidding for that elusive fourth title in-a-row and Healy hoping to complete a "Grand-Slam" of Nationals titles, having already bagged the Men's Open Singles crown in both the Irish and Canadian Nationals. In the first game of Friday night's final, Healy pulled out all the stops, displaying his full armoury of lethal kill shots and silken passing shots allied to his rocket-like serve and maintaining a slender lead throughout, he closed out the game, on a narrow scoreline of 17-21. Losing the first game provided an immediate impetus for Brady and he came out with all guns blazing, demonstrating his own dazzling array of pinpoint kills shots and smooth passing shots allied to his trademark powerful serve and he forged ahead to close out the game, on a scoreline of 21-14, bringing the match into a tiebreaker. With everything to play for in the tiebreaker, both players displayed a cautiousness with each shot and it was "nip-and-tuck", with each player swapping point for point. However, Brady was determined not to let the game slip from his grasp and he dug deep, to edge tenaciously ahead and seal victory, on a narrow scoreline of 11-9. "I am delighted with winning the title again. The four-in-row makes it all the sweeter and beating Tony is never easy. When he won the first game, I knew I had a real battle on my hands but I had been in these situations before and I just concentrated on the task in hand. Fortunately, it worked out but I had to call on all my reserves to take that tiebreaker", said an ecstatic Brady, who returns from the US on Tuesday. Tweet

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