Irish tennis players

Irish tennis, a short history

Ireland's Grand Slam story runs through a few men. Sean Sorensen was the first Irishman to reach a major main draw in the Open era, at Wimbledon in 1977; his son Louk Sorensen won the first main-draw match under the Irish flag, at the 2010 Australian Open. Conor Niland reached world No. 129 in 2010 and qualified for both Wimbledon and the US Open in 2011, later writing his career into The Racket, the first tennis book to win the William Hill Sports Book of the Year. The country's only ATP Tour singles title in the archive belongs to Matt Doyle, 1 at Cologne in 1983.

The women's record is more modest. Geraldine Barniville is the country's most decorated woman in the archive, with 1 at Stourbridge in 1971; she reached the Wimbledon main draw in the 1960s and in 1964 beat Virginia Wade, the future 1977 Wimbledon champion, in singles.

Titles and records run from 1968, the start of the Open era.