Tennis:Louk Sorensen and Conor Niland both enjoyed victories at the Australian Open Men's Singles Qualifiers in Melbourne earlier today.
Sorensen defeated 26th seed Michael Yani from the United States 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 and will now play New Zealand's Daniel King-Turner for a place in the main draw of the first Grand Slam of the year.
The last time Sorensen played King-Turner was in 2008 in an ITF Futures event in Bolzano, Italy which he won 4-6 6-4 6-3.
Niland won 2-6 6-1 6-4 over American 28th seed Jesse Witten and will play Brazilian Ricardo Hocevar in the final qualifying round tomorrow.
Two Irish Juniors, John Morrissey and Sam Barry, will compete in the Australian Open Boys Singles main draw.
Andy Murray’s worst fears, meanwhile, were just about realised after he was handed a potentially nightmare draw this morning.
The 22-year-old Scot will be attempting to clinch his first-ever grand slam in Melbourne, but could have to beat three of the world’s top four players including world number one Roger Federer and reigning Australian Open champion Rafael Nadal, to do so.
On the surface Murray’s draw looked simple when he was matched to play a qualifier in his first-round match on Monday while either Marc Giquel or Simone Bolelli, who are both ranked outside the top 50, await in the second round.
The devil, however, is in the later rounds where Murray is set to pay for his ranking dropping to five this week.
The Scot dipped out of the top four for the first time since August 2008 after he opted not to defend his title in Doha and instead compete at the Hopman Cup in Perth — where no rankings points were on offer.
Murray has repeatedly stated that his desire to come to Australia and acclimatise to the conditions were the reason for his earlier than usual arrival Down Under and his form in Perth suggested he is on top of his game.
However, by falling to fifth in the rankings Murray opened up the possibility of playing a top four opponent earlier than expected in the last eight and he could not have wished for a more difficult rival after Nadal was pooled in his quarter of the draw.
The Spaniard won last year’s title at Melbourne Park, and while he has not lifted an ATP title in eight months, he holds a 7-2 win-loss record over Murray.
If Murray progresses past Nadal then a worst-case scenario would then pit him against world number four Juan Martin del Potro — the winner of the US Open last September — before a final showdown with Federer who is chasing his fourth Australian Open crown.
It is a draw as difficult as Murray could have hoped, although the confident 22-year-old indicated this week he expected a tough pathway if he was to break his grand slam duck.