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Paul Brady
Paul Brady
5-Time World Handball Champion
5-Time World Handball Champion
Paul Brady has taken over the world of handball for more than 15 years. He has been named one of the 15 greatest athletes in 2016. Paul has won 10 US Nationals, played at numerous Pro Stop events, and maintained his number one position in the US rankings for many years.
Paul is the current World Handball Champion. He has won 5 consecutive world titles, winning in Dublin (2003), Edmonton (2006), Portland (2009), Dublin (2012), and Calgary (2015). His achievements include a record-breaking streak of 9 wins in All-Ireland Singles Titles from 2005 to 2013, 10 All-Ireland Senior Doubles titles with partner Michael Finnegan, 10 US Nationals Titles, and 5 US Open Singles.
10 All Ireland Senior Singles
10 All-Ireland Senior Doubles with Michael Finnegan
3 Irish 40x20 Nationals
10 US Nationals
5 US Open Singles
5 Championships and a Doubles World Championship
Senior Handball Career
Senior Handball Career
In June 1998, he won the US Nationals 19 and Under Singles in Los Angeles. He also won the Junior Nationals in the same age group the following December in Chicago, Illinois. He won the title again the next June.
home, he advanced to intermediate ranks. He won the All-Ireland title, defeating Eoin Kennedy in the semi-final and Kerry's Dominick Lynch in the finals hosted in Ballaghaderreen.
The following February, Brady again defeated Brad Alesi, this time in the finals of the USHA Collegiate in Minneapolis. This tournament draws the best college handballers in Ireland and North America and has come to be seen as a stepping stone to the professional ranks. That autumn, Brady made it to the last four of the World Championship Open Singles in Chicago, losing a heartbreaking 11-8 tiebreaker to top American John Bike.
A crop of dominant senior players, including Ducksy Walsh, Walter O'Connor, and Tom Sheridan, was coming to the end of their senior 40x20 careers at this time. With the emergence of young stars such as Brady, Kennedy, Kenneth Kane, and Tony Healy, the senior scene was extremely competitive. Brady would suffer many defeats before he finally made a senior breakthrough. Just a year older than Brady, Tony Healy became senior champion as soon as he graduated from intermediate. He would later win the title three times before he lost a senior championship match. He and Paul became close friends, as well as on-courtrivals.
2001, the pair began to travel to the US in an attempt to break on to the USHA Pro Tour. At the time, no Irish player had ever qualified for the tour, but Healy and Brady bucked the trend, reaching the final of a qualifying tournament in Atlanta in late 2001.
Their first tournament on the circuit was in Peoria, Illinois, and they would travel to Sacramento, Dallas, Juarez, South Bend, Modesto, and Las Vegas until June 2002. By which point Brady was beginning to assert himself as the top Irish player and a coming force on the world
scentHe followed up with a first All-Ireland Senior Title in March 2003, defeating Cork's Tony Healy 21-6 and 21-18 at O'Loughlin's, Kilkenny in the finals. He also added the Doubles Title with Michael Finnegan against Meath. In October 2003, he won the first of five World Open Singles titles, again defeating Healy in an epic match that is often called the greatest game ever played.
Suffering from a cramp, Brady looked as if he might be forced to withdraw from the match, but in a sporting gesture, Healy called several time-outs in succession, and Brady was able to play on. He defeated Healy, effectively on one leg and in a tiebreaker. He also added to the doubles title with Finneganthefollowing
morning.In2004,
Brady began the season with a career-best win over David Chapman, who is commonly regarded as the second-greatest player of all time and who, at that point, was the world number one in the final of the Ultimate Handball Showdown in Seattle. Brady comfortably defeated the Californian to win the first prize of $50,000.He claimed second place and got another $10,000 check from Chapman the following week in Alaska. However, it would take 12 months before Brady finally became the first Irishman to win the US Nationals, the most prestigious tournament in American with a century of history be
it. In
June 2005, Brady retained his US Nationals title, defeating Alvarado 21-2 and 21-18 on the Californian's home court at Los Caballeros. He aplayed in the US Nationals Open Doubles title with Finnegan, seeing off top Americans Vince Munoz and Marcos Chavez in an 11-10tiebreaker. IAugust 2006, he followed up with his second World Title, this time in Edmonton, Canada, again defeating Healy in straight games in the final. Brady was continuing his unbeaten run in the Irish Senior Championships, defeating Healy and Eoin Kennedy in a succession of
finals. I2009, Brady retained his US Nationals Title in June. That October, in Portland, Oregon, he beat Texan Allan Garner in an 11-7 tiebreaker in the finals to claim his third World Title. He followed this up with two more All-Ireland Senior titles, seeing off first-time finalist Charly Shanks of Armagh in 2010 and 2011. He overcame a career-threatening finger injury in the latter year. This injury saw him miss the US Nationals, in which he had been unbeaten since 2005. 2012 was a marvelous year for Paul. Recovered from his injury, he trounced his new rival Robbie McCarthy 21-6 and 21-1 in the All-Ireland senior final. He also won his fourth World Open Singles crown, defeating American Luis Moreno 21-19 and 21-10 in a magnificent game watched by 4,000 fans in City West, Dublin Two weeks later, he defeated Charly Shanks in the Simple Green US Open final in Los Angeles, his fourth time to win the event. In October 2013, he announced his plans to retire from the Irish Singles play.
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