Louk Sorensen

Sorensen's father Sean is the current captain of the Ireland Davis Cup team and played in the first round of Wimbledon in 1977, losing to Rod Laver.

(Matt Doyle reached the fourth round of the US Open in 1982 but played under the American flag then, only becoming an Irish citizen in 1985 ).

Sean also finished runner-up to Mats Wilander at an ATP Challenger Tour event in Buchholz, Germany, in February 1982.

Louk Sorensen (born 7 January 1985) is an Irish former professional tennis player.

Sorensen was the first player representing Ireland to win a Grand Slam event main draw match in the Open Era.

His father, Sean, was the first Irishman to play a Grand Slam main draw match in the Open Era, going out in the first round of Wimbledon.

He continued this good form when he became the first Irish tennis player to qualify for a Grand Slam tournament since American-born Matt Doyle in 1985, qualifying for the first round of the Australian Open after defeating Benjamin Balleret, Michael Yani and Daniel King-Turner in the qualifying rounds.

He is a prominent member of the Irish Davis Cup team, holding a 10–2 singles record, having made his debut in July 2005.

Sorensen's surname is of Norwegian origin.

His mother, Helga, has both German and Austrian blood.

Louk's older brother, Kevin, was also a professional tennis player and competed for Ireland in the Davis Cup until 2006.

He also has two sisters, Lisa and Josephine.

Sorensen was raised in Germany and although his parents now live in Dublin, he remained in Stuttgart, training with German coach, Carsten Arriens, who also coached Germans Andreas Beck and Alexander Waske, and playing for third division Bundesliga tennis club TC Doggenburg.

In February 2007, Sorensen won his first senior international title in the Portugal F1 Futures event in Faro, where he beat Canadian Pierre-Ludovic Duclos in the final 6–1, 6–1.

This was followed by finishing runner-up in the U.A.E. F1 Futures tournament in April in Dubai, but winning the U.A.E. F2 Futures tournament, again in Dubai, just a week later.

On 21 January 2008, he finished as runner-up in the Portugal F2 Futures tournament in Albufeira to Romanian Victor Ioniță, losing 6–2, 6–7, 2–6.

Sorensen won his first ATP Challenger event at the Volkswagen Challenger series in Wolfsburg in February, defeating Farrukh Dustov 7–6, 4–6, 6–4 in the final.

He reached his career high ATP ranking of 246 on 7 April 2008.

Sorensen made his first attempt to qualify for a Grand Slam in June 2008 at Wimbledon and defeated home player Edward Seator 6–2, 6–1 in the first qualifying round.

However, Sorensen was forced to retire through injury in the third set of his next match against Édouard Roger-Vasselin, with the match delicately balanced at 1 set each.

Sorensen again attempted to qualify for a Grand Slam in January 2009 at the Australian Open, defeating Victor Crivoi of Romania in the first qualifying round 4–6, 7–6, 6–3, but he again fell at the second hurdle, this time to Peter Polansky 6–4, 1–6, 3–6.

He put this disappointment behind him to reach the final of the Croatia F1 Futures tournament in Zagreb, losing out to Martin Fischer.

Sorensen began 2010 by qualifying for his first ATP World Tour 250 series tournament, the first round of the 2010 Aircel Chennai Open, losing to Stéphane Robert 1–6, 2–6.

He was drawn against Lu Yen-hsun of Chinese Taipei, ranked 101st in the world, in the first round.

Sorensen went on to become the first ever player representing Ireland to win a Grand Slam match in the Open Era when he beat Lu in 4 sets, 6–4, 3–6, 6–2, 6–1.

He faced 6' 9" American John Isner in the second round, falling 6–3, 7–6, 7–5. Before the start of the tournament, Sorensen was ranked at No. 284 by the ATP, however, 2 weeks later he had jumped a huge 71 places to a career-high No.213. Sorensen could not continue the good form he had shown at the Australian Open, losing in the first round of both the Heilbronn Challenger and the Kazan Challenger in consecutive weeks. He then faced a length three-month lay-off due to a hamstring injury, but made his comeback on 10 May at the Biella Challenger, defeating qualifier Andrea Arnaboldi in his first round match. Sorensen's lengthy absence proved his undoing later in the tournament, however, as his lack of match practice showed during his defeat to Yannick Mertens in the second round.

Sorensen attempted to qualify for the French Open main draw 2 weeks later, but lost out to José Acasuso at the first hurdle.

In May 2011 Sorensen was forced to retire from tennis after being plagued by injury since the start of 2010 and decided to call it a career after suffering a knee injury six weeks previous.

However, in June, Sorensen came back from retirement and competed in a Futures tournament in Germany and reached the Quarterfinals before pulling out citing injury.

In July, Sorensen competed in the Singles Qualifying of the 2011 MercedesCup.

Louk defeated Maximilian Marterer in the first round and Jan Hernych in the second round.

In the third round, Sorensen was defeated by Evgeny Donskoy.

Should Sorensen have beaten Evgeny, he would have qualified for the main draw of the tournament.

Sorensen played in the 2011 Concurso Internacional de Tenis held in San Sebastián, Spain.

In the first round, Louk defeated the wildcard Gianni Mina 6–3, 6–4.

In the second round, Sorensen lost to the third seed, Daniel Gimeno Traver 6–4, 5–7, 5–7 after being up a break in the second set.

Sorensen's next tournament was the 2011 US Open, the final Grand Slam of the year.

His final event was the 2015 Aegon GB Pro-Series Glasgow where he lost in qualifying.

Since retiring from playing, Sorensen has begun coaching and currently coaches Australian player John Millman.

Sorensen began his professional career with participation in the France F15 Futures event in Sarreguemines on 25 September, beating Stéphane Piro to reach the 2nd round, before ultimately losing to Riccardo Ghedin.