The Ulster U14 Provincial Match play Tennis finals took place in Fermanagh over the weekend with both Irvinestown and Enniskillen Tennis clubs hosting the event as the top Juniors from around Ulster took part. And there was to be local success as Sarah Cousins defended her number one ranking.

And there was to be further joy as Jared Monaghan claimed the number one ranking in the Boys U16 Provincial Matchplay which were held at the Belfast Boat Club.

U14 Event Enniskillen's Sarah Cousins is the current Ulster number 1 and was out to defend that ranking. Weather conditions were difficult at times but this did not prevent Sarah from playing her trademark hard-hitting game.

Her first match on Saturday was against Parveen Hariri from Windsor Tennis club.

Despite some fine tennis from Parveen, Sarah's power game was impossible for Parveen to defend against and Sarah won the match with the loss of just one game.

Sunday's first match was a semi-final against the Ulster number 4, Belfast's Jessica Leeman.

Sarah played almost flawless tennis with only a handful of mistakes and too many winners to count resulting in another win for Sarah with the loss of just one game.

The final was against the Ulster number 2, Emma Coalter from Lurgan. This match saw Sarah at her very best.

Her shots were far too powerful for Emma to deal with, Sarah hit some forehands at speeds that made the spectators gasp! This match was won without losing a single game. Sarah confirmed in a very definitive manner that she is Ulsters number 1 under 14 girl.

There were also a number of boys competing at U14 level and things started well for the home players when Kyran Maguire beat Will Millar (Windsor Belfast). This was followed by Conan Whitley beating Anton Robb (Windsor) with a dogged display of determination to win, and guaranteed both a top 8 finish their main goal for the weekend.

Both Oliver Guette and Eoin Meade had tough first round matches. Oliver lost to No2 Seed Peter Corrie (Ward Pk Bangor) while Eoin was beaten by no 3 Seed Matthew Robinson (Windsor).

The second round of matches saw Eoin play a great match and was unlucky just to lose out to Caleb Ralston (Lurgan) while Oliver also lost a tight match with Anton Robb (Windsor).

For Conan it was a tough task as he lost to Peter Corrie while Kyran played his best match of the weekend pushing the no1 Seed Ben McClurg to the limit before going down.

On the Sunday Oliver had a great day as he firstly defeated Eoin Meade and then Matias Olave (Lurgan) to finish on a positive note while Eoin can take heart that he played at times some stylish positive play.

Conan lost to Conor Partington (Harwenden Belfast) while Kyran lost a tough battle to old rival no 5 seed Jordan McKeown (Ward Pk) with a few tough calls not going his way but certainly not much between the players.

Finally the two Irvinestown boys did battle again with Conan playing his best tennis of the weekend beating Kyran 6-3 6-3 and gaining 7th and 8th on a great weekend of Junior tennis in Fermanagh.

U16 Event The under 16 boys match-plays were held at the Belfast Boat Club. Enniskillen's Jared Monaghan is in his first year of this age group and finished Ulster number five in the winter match-plays, so this time he was hoping to finish in the top 4.

Jared won his first two rounds comfortably so this set up a semi final against the number 1 seed Chris Cree from Bangor. The match turned out to be a very closely fought encounter.

At one set each it went to a champions tiebreak, Jared took control and won it 10/5.

Elated at this victory Jared was unstoppable in the final and won the match against Matthew O'Boyle 6/4 6/3.

To take the Ulster number one spot in his first year is a huge and well deserved achievement.

It is the first time that two players from the West, in fact, from the same club have achieved Ulster number one status at the same time!

This is a truly remarkable achievement for local tennis players to take a leading role in Ulster tennis.

The Enniskillen Tennis Club is very proud to have new standards being set by their juniors playing at this level.

Their delighted coach Matthew McGann stated that "performing at this level takes a great deal of commitment and hard work. Sarah and Jared have put in that time and effort and will surely inspire their club-mates to follow in their footsteps." Other notable performances from among the 12 matchplay qualifiers from Enniskillen were Daire Dillon, finishing Ulster number 4 in the under 18's. It's his first year in this highly competitive age group so it is a fantastic result for him. Laura Griffin finished number 5 in the under 16's.

Her racquet speed is incredible and as this is also her first year in this age group the future looks bright for her.