JAMES MCGEE WILL be up against a familiar face when Australian Open qualifying begins in Melbourne on Wednesday.
Ireland’s number one has been drawn against Norbert Gombos of Slovakia in the first of three qualifying rounds for the season’s first Grand Slam.
Twelfth-seed Gombos is currently ranked 125th in the world, 99 places higher than McGee. The pair met on clay in French Open qualifying last year where McGee won in three sets, 6-2 2-6 6-4 .
The winner will face either Dane Propoggia of Australia or Britain’s Brydan Klein.
Ireland’s other representative Louk Sorensen will play the 31st seed, Vincent Millot of France. Sorensen, 30, made history when he beat Lu Yen-hsun at the 2010 Australian Open, Ireland’s first Grand Slam win in the open era.
Come on lads! Let’s hope Ireland can soon produce a tennis player that can play consistently in the top 50.
Like Golf it’s just such a hard sport to break through at the beginning since you have to endure so much travelling around the world to play at the lower ranking events before you are good enough to start playing ATP events.
Like many of our Irish lads rarely make a substantial profit for their efforts throughout the year. I’m fairly sure it was Conor Niland back in 2010 or 2011 when he lost his first round match at Wimbledon said that qualifying for that event alone paid for half of his year on the the lower circuit.
Do we get an automatic representative for us at the Olympics in Rio or do they still have to be in the top whatever in the world?
Both play at 11pm tonight Irish time. Louk on Court 8 and James on Court 15. Links to qualifying draws and schedule here… http://robcherrytennis.com/index.php/australian-open-qualifying-draws-mcgee-sorensen/