TENNIS/Davis Cup: David O'Connell, Tristan Farron-Mahon and the two Sorensen brothers, Louk and Kevin, may shortly get a chance to play against one of the world's top players.
The Irish Davis Cup team flies to Helsinki next week to meet Finland in their European-African Zone match, effectively the middle division of world tennis, where they may have to face the world number 25-ranked player Jarkko Nieminen.
Last year Nieminen beat Andre Agassi in the first round of the French Open at Roland Garros over five sets. At that time the American was ranked seven in the world.
Disappointingly Conor Niland and Eoin Heavey, who probably would have been picked for the team, are unavailable for selection because of collegiate commitments. Both players are studying and playing in Berkeley University in San Francisco, where former Irish Davis Cup player and non-playing captain Peter Wright is head coach.
Louk and Kevin Sorensen, who are ranked 504 and 651 in the world respectively, were part of the side that gained promotion to this world group last summer in Fitzwilliam. O'Connell is on a tennis scholarship at DCU and trains at the National Tennis Centre on a full-time basis and has a world ranking of 1,504.
Farron-Mahon last year played in all of the junior grand slam events, Melbourne, Paris, London and New York, and was ranked as high as 40 on the junior ladder. This will be his first full season as a senior player and he has no senior ATP ranking at present.
The Finns have not yet announced their side. The event will take place at the Tali Tennis Centre in Helsinki, an indoor arena, and once again former player Owen Casey will travel as the non-playing captain.
Ireland and Finland have met six times in previous Davis Cup matches and have three wins each. If Nieminen, who was competing in the Masters series in the US, does not play the chances of getting something out of the tie will significantly increase.
The Finnish number one beat Mark Philippoussis in the first round of the Nasdaq-100 in Miami before falling to ninth seed American James Blake in the third round.
