TENNIS IRISH OPEN:THIS WEEKEND the qualifiers for the Green Property Men's Irish Open Championship begin with the main draw of the €11,635 Futures tournament kicking off on Monday in Fitzwilliam LTC. One of the top Irish tournaments of the year in its own right, the Irish Open also gives local players the opportunity to earn vital ranking points on home soil.

The event has been stitched in as a middle Irish leg between two British Futures competitions, the first of which took place this week on grass at Frinton in Britain.

The second oldest championships in the world after the All-England Championships, the Irish tournament began two years after what is now called Wimbledon in 1879 and was for many years organised for men and women.

Now for men only, Futures-level tennis is a week-long event and in the recent past has had players of the calibre of Janko Tipsarivic and John Isner take part. The Serbian player is ranked 46 in the world and the American, Isner, who won the longest tennis match ever played at Wimbledon this year, is ranked 18.

There are three Irish players in the main draw so far, with James McGee, who played in last week’s Davis Cup against Lithuania, the highest ranked. He is 522 in the world. Barry King and Colin O’Brien are the other two so far accepted.

Louk Sorensen, the Ireland number two, remains in Germany and is still recovering from injury, while Ireland number one Conor Niland has his eyes on bigger things and travels to Russia to compete in a higher ranking Challenger event.

Niland hopes to crack the top 100 in the player rankings and gain automatic positions in the main draws of the Grand Slams.

The top-ranked player is the 393-ranked Czech player Miloslav Mecir. His father was one of the best players in the game’s history not to win a Grand Slam title, although he was involved in two major finals and also won Olympic gold in 1988.

Josh Goodall heads a group of Britons, with Daniel Cox and Burnham Arlidge also in the draw.

There are still three main draw wildcards to allocate as well as six qualifiers and the likelihood is Ireland’s Daniel Glancy will also move into the 32-man field for Monday’s start.

The qualification begins tomorrow and includes Ireland’s James Cluskey, John Morrissey, Fabio Molle and George McGill.