Louk Sorenson has just won his final qualifying match to become the first Irish tennis player in 25+ years to reach the main draw of a grand slam!
Conor Niland is currently 3-0 up in the first set of his last QR
A great night for Irish tennis
Printable View
Louk Sorenson has just won his final qualifying match to become the first Irish tennis player in 25+ years to reach the main draw of a grand slam!
Conor Niland is currently 3-0 up in the first set of his last QR
A great night for Irish tennis
awesome
Good strong Irish names :)
they won a game open the champagne.
Huge for Irish tennis, even bigger for Louk personally. Quite and achievement. Here's hoping he can pull off a big win over Lu!
Niland didn't make it in the end, he won the first set but lost the next two.
Hmmm, interesting that you cried when Irish men in a sport you like didn't qualify, and yet you're quick to dismiss Irish sports people who actually do qualify for somethingQuote:
Originally Posted by paul_oshea
If you've no interest in it. Don't comment.
eh i dont remember saying i cried, though i thought i said close to tears, however thats semantics and not really relevant. relatively i dont think you could compare the two anyway.
I actually like tennis, played it a good bit at community games when younger, but out of all the nations, throughout the country we have public tennis courts and kids playing, not with proper coaching maybe, but i hardly think being in the top 128 is any great achievemnet or as the case maybe qualifying for one tournament to enter that number, especially when the aus open is probably one of the easier to qualify for too.
Its a public forum of course i am going to comment if i want to.
If he wins his next game or two games then ya that would be some achievement.
Quote:
Originally Posted by paul_oshea
The AO is no easier to qualify for than any other slam really. When you consider how many people around the world play the sport with aspirations of making a career out of it and being the best, to make it into the top 200 is quite an achievement. I expect Louk to crack that nut this year.
I know a guy who played tennis from an early age, travelled a lot to play in his teens before going to America. He never got anywhere near where Louk is today. To qualify for a grand slam is a great achievement, we need to put things in perspective. I suppose in soccer terms this would be like an Irish player playing his first match in the English Premier League.. and we'd make a big deal out of that if no other Irishman had done it for 25 years.
Rain interrupted must of the schedule on Day One on the outside courts.
Day Two schedule
http://www.australianopen.com/en_AU/...schedule7.html
Court 14 Louk Sorensen (IRL) v. Yen-Hsun Lu (TPE)
11:00 am
Start
Weather permitting that puts him warming up at 12:00 midnight (Irish time) and starting his game a few minutes after on Tuesday morning
Pfft, sure to use that logic 32 teams qualified for the World cup and each is allowed to bring a squad of 23. So any individual player in that competition is actually only in the top 736 players, which we all know is easier to qualify for than the European Championships [or at least it's easier for us over the history of the sport in Ireland]. :pQuote:
Originally Posted by paul_oshea
Even something as simple as this qualification will help raise the profile of the game in Ireland and might mean a few extra kids will pick up a racket and in a few years time, we might have two people in the top 128 at Wimbledon.
But tikok i knew loads growing up who played tennis at some stage. Picking up a racket isn't the problem, lots of 20 - 30 year old irish would have played tennis growing up at some stage. The problem is probably coaching and the struture in place. I dont remember anything after u14 community games that we were able to play in....probably because the person who used enter us wasn't aware of anything else. Same as table tennis, i loved that and was about the only thing i was decent at and we did well at up until u14 but we had nothing after that age.
Surely then that makes it an even greater achievement?
In fairness Paul, that a different argument to what I was responding to, if anything what you've posted above only goes to show more clearly what a huge achievement it is for an Irishman to get into the top 128 and qualify for a grand slam.Quote:
Originally Posted by paul_oshea
SOrenson on now. He broke serve in first game :)
Long, long way to go though
5-3 now in the first set. Doing fine so far.
http://www.australianopen.com/en_AU/index.html Click on live scoreboard on the right hand side of the page is the only way I think you can follow it. 5-4 up in the first now, serving for the set.
Edit- Just won it 6-4
Can he keep it up or will the nerves appear ?
Just broke him again, 2-1 up in the second :)Quote:
Originally Posted by TheBoss
You dont think its a big achievement?? maybe your just not as patriotic as the rest of usQuote:
Originally Posted by paul_oshea
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/tennis/8466427.stm
Talking about the scoreboard not updating. :D
1 set all now.
Aussie Open website scoreboard working again
http://www.australianopen.com/en_AU/scores/index.html
Sorensen won the third set 6-2
Sorensen is 5-0 up in the fourth.
Y-H Lu has saved about three Match points so far.
After Edit:
Lu won that game on his own serve, 5-1 Sorensen 4th set 2-1.
Congratulations Louk!
Sorensen wins 6-4,3-6,6-2, 6-1. vg
His next opponent is Isner (USA) or Seppi (ITA) both around the 50 mark.
Isner lost a two set lead to Seppi 2-2 sets all at the moment.
In another qualifer versus Goliath game. Sergeyev (UKR) took a two set lead to Sela(ISR). Sela has won a set but is still losing serve to Sergeyev.
Sorensen goes through in 4 sets! Massive win against a tough and rated opponent. This is a good day for Irish sport, the lad is self-financed and if not for injury would be a top 100 player.
Now he's playing the giant John Isner, but I think Sorensen's game might cause an upset.
As for "just" being in the top 128, what is most enlightening is to work with anyone, male or female, who plies their trade on the tour. To break into the top 1000 means you've got talent and ability. To break top 500 means you've both those attributes with a bit of dedication and some financial support. To break top 200 means you have all the above and luck, and top 100 means you can make a living. Qualifying for an ITF 10k event is a chore, to play 3 qualies and win a round at a major is more than most can dream of.
From BBC:
A fantastic achievement, congrats to him.Quote:
"The ITF confirms that Louk Sorensen is the first player representing Ireland to win a main draw singles match at a Grand Slam tournament."
John Isner up next - what odds the locals might throw it on a main court so we might see it?? Lots of Irish punters courtside apparently??
Edit - No chance - Sorensen v Isner tomorrow - 3rd match on court 8. after 2 x womens singles
Lets hope Sorensen can win another match. Isner is huge though. 6.9. And a top30 player at the moment.
Great achivement, even as a non-tennis fan I can recognise the achivement, especially considering the lack of funding, infrastructure and coaching at home. When was the last time an Irish player made the 2nd round of a Grand Salm event?
2007- Claire Curran in the mixed doubles at Wimbledon.Quote:
Originally Posted by endabob1
Good luck to the lad.
Apparently he's been getting loads of Facebook friend requests!!!
Great news to wake up to on a cold and wet day, brilliant result, and hoping he can do the business in the next one too.:)
I humbly eat my words :D
How much does he get for this?
Are both his parents German? did he grow up in ireland?
Fantastic achievement. Best of luck to the lad and hopefully he will improve and grow from this.
Quote:
Originally Posted by paul_oshea
His dad, Sean, is Irish, current coach of our Davis Cup team, and played in the first round of Wimbledon in 1980.
Congrats to him and good luck for tonight - really hope he can caused an upset .....
His match is due on court at 4am tomorrow morning
I think she was representing GBR at the time. She flip flops between themQuote:
Originally Posted by Gather round
What ranking points would he get for wining the round 1 game? ...... and where would that put him in the rankings .... like would he get inside the top 200?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATP_Ran...ion_as_of_2009
He's 284 currently and should be close enough to top 200 at the moment. He'd break top 200 if he wins his 2nd round match.
http://www.atpworldtour.com/Rankings...2010&c=&r=201#