TENNIS:Ireland's Louk Sorensen booked his place the main draw of a grand slam for the first time after progressing through qualifying for the Australian Open today. The 25-year-old defeated New Zealand's Daniel King-Turner 6-4 7-6 (7/3) in the third and final round.
At 287th in the world, Sorensen will be one of the lowest ranked players in the main draw. He missed out on a possible showdown with world number five Andy Murray or former finalist Leyton Hewitt who were bought drawn to play a qualifier in the first round.
Instead, Sorensen will face Yen-Hsun Lu of Taiwan, currently ranked 101st in the ATP standings, on Monday at 11am local time (midnight on Sunday Irish time).
He is the first Irish player to make it through to the main draw of any of the four Grand Slams since Matt Doyle did back in the 1980s.
Conor Niland did not join his countryman in the main draw after he failed to capitalise on winning the opening set against Brazil’s Ricardo Hocevar to lose 1-6 6-4 6-3.