[Holmzy]

Just checked the Heillbronn challenger thread and somone said its not true which is good for louk if he waits till end of feb

[jmf07]

Conor has drawn Chiudinelli in the first round of the 85k Heilbronn Challenger. Hopefully we see an improved showing compared to what he has done so far this year.

[Henry Chinaski]

hope so.

tough draw though

[Smoke944]

I see that Irish top-30 junior John Morrissey chose to play collegiate tennis at Stanford.
Tennis aside, great decision for his future.

[Henry Chinaski]

Thanks for that man. I heard months ago he was likely to go down the US collegiate route but had been unable to find out anything since

[Holmzy]

Good win for Conor today in the 1st round of the Heilbronn Challenger. He beat Marco Chiudinelli 7-5 6-2. I watched the match online and Conor played very well and was mentally strong compared to Chiudinelli who was throwing his racket all over the place. Well done Conor and good luck in the next round against Klizan

[jmf07]

Conor. Good to hear he played well.

[Holmzy]

Conor beat Martin Klizan 6-4 2-6 7-6(3) today in the 2nd round of the Heilbronn Challenger. It was a vey tight match but Conor grinded it out and he will play Bozoljac in the quarter final tomorrow. Good Luck Conor!

[Henry Chinaski]

Found out my old secondary school English teacher is realted to Conor. Just asked him on twitter if it's true

Good grind today

[Henry Chinaski]

Conor confirmed it is true.

Round up of the Irish players in week 4 here:

http://shanktennis.com/2011/02/01/sh...reland-week-4/

Disaster for Niland in Kazan today retiring in 1st set. Defending semi-final points. Top seed too...

[jmf07]

That's not good. The Russians have listed the reason for his retirement as flew so I'm guessing they mean flu unless Conor flew out of the court.

[Henry Chinaski]

yup flu it was. unlucky one.

Latest on Louk:

IRELAND have suffered a major blow for next month's Davis Cup showdown against Luxembourg with the news that team boss Garry Cahill is almost certain to be unable to call on Louk Sorensen.

Because of a combination of hamstring and pubic muscle problems, Sorensen has not hit a ball in competitive action since August.

It had been hoped that the Stuttgart-based player would make a return to tournament play in next week's ITF Futures event in Bergamo, Italy.

But the former Irish No 1 has had to put those plans on hold to fully recover from his injury problems.

And now, according to a source, Sorensen is unlikely to resume the chase for world ranking points for at least another four weeks.

With the Europe-Africa Zone Group Two home tie against Luxembourg scheduled for March 4-6, it means that Sorensen is almost certainly out of the equation for the four-man squad.

"Louk is going to Spain next week for 10 days of more intensive fitness and match training," said the source.

"As things stand, there is no way that he'd be up to the physical demands of possibly two five-set matches (in three days) in a Davis Cup tie."

The unavailability of Sorensen leaves Cahill having to choose James Cluskey or Colin O'Brien to link up with Conor Niland, James McGee and Barry King.

[Henry Chinaski]

As expected, no Sorensen for DC...

TENNIS NEWS ROUND-UP: A WEAKENED Davis Cup team will face Luxembourg in Dublin next month in the first round of the 2011 competition, which is moving this season from its traditional base at Fitzwilliam to the David Lloyd Centre at Riverview. Davis Cup has been played in the venerable Fitzwilliam for the past eight years.

Tennis Ireland in conjunction with Riverview are installing four new courts of slow paced acrylic for the competition, the same surface that is in the National Training Centre and one the Irish players are used to playing on.

The match has also been moved because of the possibility that Ireland will meet Britain in the second round. An interesting aspect of the draw is that Britain is also in Ireland’s Europe-Africa zone Group Two.

They meet Tunisia in their opening match on the same side of the draw.

If both Britain and Ireland lose their opening games, they move back towards relegation and play each other in the second round or if they both win they move forwards towards promotion and face each other in a match that is scheduled as a home fixture for Ireland.

In that light Fitzwilliam holds between 1,000-1,200 spectators while Riverview can cater for around 2,000 and the possibility of Britain arriving with the world number five Andy Murray in the team would generate significantly higher interest. Murray, however, did not schedule in Davis Cup last year but has not entirely ruled it in or out.

Once again Louk Sorensen, who became the first Irish player since the 1980s to qualify for the main draw of a Grand Slam at the Australian Open last year, is not in the team due to injury, which was reportedly a similar ailment to that which Irish second row Paul O’Connell suffered from, an infection of the pubis bone.

Sorensen is now back hitting but is not yet at the level to compete. He has been struggling with the injury almost consistently since after his Australian run to the second round in 2010.

Barry King, who featured last year against Turkey and Lithuania, fails to make the team with Irish number one, Conor Niland joined by James Magee, James Cluskey and Colin O’Brien. Niland is an occasional hitting partner with Murray and at 131 in the world he is the highest ranked player in these islands after the Scot. The match takes place from March 4th-6th.

[Hewitt =Legend]

Good to see Louk is back training and hitting again, hopefully he can overcome these injury problems and get going on the tour again.

[Henry Chinaski]

Shankwatch Ireland - Week 5 featuring a very distasteful opening sequence that might well get me shot

http://shanktennis.com/2011/02/08/sh...reland-week-5/