The draw for the Shelbourne Men’s Irish Open tennis championships, which commence on Monday at Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club, has presented challenging opening round matches for Ireland's six contenders.
National number one Louk Sorensen has been drawn to play the number six seed, Nicolas Tourte from France.
Tourte is ranked 233 in the world – 103 places higher than the Stuttgart-based Sorensen.
Conor Niland takes on another Frenchman Gary Lugassy, the number eight seed.
Lugassy, with a current world ranking of 248, comes to Fitzwilliam having won the recent ITF Futures event in Limerick.
Niland has played Lugassy three times in the past two years and is yet to register a win.
Elsewhere, Peter Clarke will play the unseeded Igor Sijsling of the
Netherlands.
The former Irish number one will be hoping to improve on his display at last year's Shelbourne Irish Open where he was unlucky to lose a tight second round match to Great Britain's Richard Bloomfield.
Ireland's other entrants in the main draw will also be required to produce top performances against high calibre opposition.
James McGee plays the third seed, Alun Jones of Australia.
Jones is one of four players in the draw with a current ranking inside the world's top 200.
He is ranked at 198 on the ATP list. Dundalk's John McGahon faces American Brendan Evans while James Clusky will play Ti Chen from Chinese Taipei.
The schedule of play for the first day's action at the US$50,000 ATP event sees three Irish players in singles action.
James Clusky takes to the court at 1pm against Ti Chen and his match is followed by John McGahon's tussle with Brendan Evans.
Louk Sorensen tops the billing in the evening session with a 6.30pm start time for his match against Nicolas Tourte.
Defending champion Mischa Zverev of Germany also plays tomorrow. The world-ranked 134 player will begin his title defence against Latvia’s Andis Juska at 1pm.
Entry to the Shelbourne Irish Open is free for the duration of the
tournament and it is hoped that the sizeable home challenge will get healthy support from the Irish fans.
Order of play for Monday July 2 at The Shelbourne Men’s Irish Open 2007:
Centre Court:
1pm: Ti Chen (TPE) v James Clusky (IRL)
followed by
Brendan Evans (USA) v John McGahon (IRL)
6.30pm: Louk Sorensen (IRL) v Nicolas Tourte (FRA)
Court 2:
1pm: Andis Juska (LAT) v Mischa Zverev (GER)
followed by
Stephane Bohli (SUI) v Lars Burgsmuller (GER)
3pm: Doubles matches to be confirmed
Court 6:
1pm Simon Stadler (GER) v Rohan Bopanna (IND)
3pm Doubles matches to be confirmed
