TENNIS:GIVEN THE way their Davis Cup match against Morocco turned out the last time Ireland stepped onto the carpet at Fitzwilliam, Ireland captain Sean Sorensen is hoping his side can stage a repeat today against Ukraine.
The historic win against a Moroccan team containing the former world number 14 Younes El Aynaoui was hugely encouraging, Ireland staging a comeback from 2-1 down to win 3-2,
Sorenson's son Louk beat Aynaoui in four sets to set up a fifth rubber. Then, in a five-set epic, Conor Niland beat Mounir El Aarej 7-6, 1-6, 6-7, 6-3, 6-0.
That result propelled Ireland into today's second-round meeting in the Europe/Africa Group 11 division, which promises another big test against a seeded team.
Ukraine beat Egypt 5-0 in the first round, dropping just two sets in all. Sergiy Stakovsky is likely to be Ireland's main threat. He is ranked 133; Sorensen is Ireland's highest-ranked player, at 304.
Incidentally, the son of the great Sergei Bubka, former world and Olympic pole-vault champion, is also named on the Ukraine team.
Sergei won six consecutive IAAF World titles and an Olympic gold medal and broke the world record 35 times. His speciality was incrementally breaking the world mark, thereby picking up the associated cash bonus while leaving higher marks within range with a view to further paydays.
Sergei jnr, ranked 557, has yet to make a comparable impact on tennis, though for present purposes his team are favourites.
Ukraine come into the match having twice beaten Ireland - in 1994 (5-0) on the carpet at Fitzwilliam and in 2004 (4-1) on a hard court in Donetsk, Ukraine.
For that 1994 match, Ireland were under the guidance of non-playing team captain Matt Doyle, who with the current captain, Sean Sorensen, once formed the most successful Irish doubles partnership in Davis Cup.
While Louk Sorenson is named on the team, the Irish number one has just come back from injury after withdrawing from the Wimbledon qualifiers in mid-June following a first-round win against the 508-ranked Englishman Richard Seater.
Niland, who was unhappy with his effort in the Irish Close Championships, will go into the match taking confidence from winning the more recent Futures event in his native Limerick. Colin O'Brien, with a world ranking of 855, and James Cluskey, ranked 872, make up the four-man team that will play either Cyprus or Portugal in the next round if they advance.
