Tennis Feature: Mayo for Slam

He certainly hasn't had it easy. Two and a half years ago, Eoghan Jennings battled a persistent back injury that kept him off the court for 15 months. 

But he dealt with it in an extraordinarily level headed way: “In a way, I nearly enjoyed my time off. I could do other things. When I was injured, I was never really watching tennis. When you're not kind of involved with it, it's quite easy to distance yourself from it. So I didn't actually miss it a ton. I was just doing a lot of physiotherapy, but then when you come back, it really motivates you even more to be better.”

Eoghan did have some catching up to be doing though. The first few training sessions were tough. 

“The first few sessions are, you're literally in a box. You're barely moving,” he explains: “You're starting off with a red ball or orange ball, which, for people that don't play tennis, is like a bigger sponge or a ball. It's for eight or nine-year-olds.”

It took Eoghan about three or four weeks to get back training 100 per cent. Training was fine by then but match fitness is a different animal altogether. At the first tournament he played, he did struggle physically, cramping on court and stuff.

He had to do many extra shifts in the gym: “To be honest, when you get to the pros, they spend about 60 per cent of their time in the gym, and I'd say about another 40 per cent is tennis. It's arguably the most important thing when you do get to a certain standard, and it's something I've always lacked compared to the lads I've been competing with internationally, just being able to play for three, four hours without cramping up.”

NEXT LEVEL

In the last few months, Eoghan has been put in a lot of work off the court to bring him to the next level. And yet, he makes no bones about his way of thinking when he worked his way back from long-term injury: “I bagged the idea of travelling to international tournaments. I hadn't really much intention of taking it that seriously. I was going to play the ones in Ireland, maybe see what I could do nationally.” 

That's how casually Eoghan describes his approach from early 2025. The way the tennis world works, players gain ranking points by winning tournaments or at least getting to the latter stages. Soon enough, Eoghan was killing it at Irish tournaments, winning some of them. So he started competing in some higher ranking events and then over the course of the year, his ranking points kept stacking up and he pushed it to another level.

Eoghan flew across the world, to South Africa, Bolivia and the Cayman Islands, in pursuit of valuable ranking points. Thanks to sponsors, he can pursue his dream. And all this effort has paid off. The Mayo teenager racked up enough points and is currently ranked as number 127 Junior tennis player in the entire world. 

When The Mayo News catches up with him, he is preparing Down Under for the Junior Australian Open, which take place this week. 

He has to win two qualification matches though to make it to the first round of the tournament. 

“The qualifiers are in a different place to the main draw, so I'm not actually in Melbourne Park, I'm about two hours outside of Melbourne, so the goal would be to really qualify,” Eoghan states.

“It's a tiny bit anti-climatic out here in a small village, two hours outside of Melbourne. I definitely would like to qualify and get a chance to play in Melbourne Park.”

He will need to get the luck of the draw. That's always a fact at the big tennis events, but it's obviously a huge achievement that Eoghan made it so far - the first Irish player at that level in four years.

TRAVELS

“He's a lucky boy, but we're well used to him travelling now. At this stage he could go anywhere and it's normal now, he's away a lot,” says his mother Ciara Jennings. However, travelling around the world is no option for the parents: “No, we never travel with him. I wouldn't have minded a trip to Australia now, but, I have three other children here, and anyhow, I don't think he'd have any interest in us travelling with him, to be honest.”

Well, as long as Eoghan keeps up with school, the mother sees no issue with him travelling around. 

And this time in Australia, he has important support with him: His coach Garrett Barry who has been training Eoghan for many years, has accompanied him for a tournament abroad. 

"On behalf of Eoghan’s coaching team in Mayo and Connacht, we are incredibly proud of his achievement,” Barry said before embarking for Australia: “We hope that in reaching his first Grand Slam, Eoghan will inspire players everywhere, especially those outside the traditional tennis strongholds, to believe that it can be done, no matter where you come from.”

The presence of his coach is welcome support when Eoghan Jennings takes to the court tomorrow (Wednesday) in his first qualifier. The opponent will only be drawn on Tuesday evening. 

There will be many eyes from Westport, Mayo and indeed the rest of the country set on events in Australia. Two matches to make the Junior Grand Slam. Some might say: Mayo for Slam. 

Gallery: Northern lights shine bright across Mayo