Sean Sorensen (born 11 December 1955) is a former professional

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

player from

Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...

Career

When Sorensen qualified for the 1977 Wimbledon Championships, he became the first Irishman to appear in the main draw of a Grand Slam in the

Open Era The racket sport traditionally named lawn tennis, invented in Edgbaston, Warwickshire, England, now commonly known simply as tennis, is the direct descendant of what is now denoted real tennis or royal tennis, which continues to be played today a ...

. He was beaten in the opening round by

Rod Laver Rodney George Laver (born 9 August 1938) is an Australian former professional tennis player. Laver was ranked as the World number 1 ranked male tennis players, world number 1 professional player indisputably for five years from 1965 to 1969, ...

.ATP World Tour Profile
/ref> In 1980 he was a quarter-finalist at the Grand Prix event in

Metz Metz ( , , , then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle (river), Moselle and the Seille (Moselle), Seille rivers. Metz is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Moselle (department), Moselle Departments ...

, defeating Craig Wittus and

Kim Warwick Kim Warwick (born 8 April 1952) is an Australian former professional male tennis player who competed on the ATP Tour from 1970 to 1987, reaching the singles final of the Australian Open in 1980. He defeated over 35 players ranked in the top t ...

en route. Later that year, Sorensen played at Wimbledon for a second time, but was again unable to reach the second round, losing to Patrice Dominguez. He had one of the best wins of his career in the 1984 German Open, where he upset Sammy Giammalva Jr. The man who won that tournament, Juan Aguilera, a top 20 player, would be defeated by Sorensen in a

Davis Cup The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is organised by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and contested annually between teams from over 150 competing countries, making it the world's largest annual ...

match that year. Sorensen's Davis Cup career started in 1976 and he took part in 21 ties before retiring in 1987. The Irishman was a member of the team which competed in the World Group in 1983, playing ties against

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and the

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. He won 28 matches out of the 54 matches that he played for Ireland, with a 19/15 record in singles and 9/11 record in doubles rubbers. His doubles partnership with Matt Doyle, which resulted in six wins, is the most successful in Irish Davis Cup history.

Personal

During his career and for another 20 years after, Sorensen lived in

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, but has since returned to Ireland. While in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

he had two sons, Kevin and Louk, who have both also played Davis Cup tennis.'' Cork Independent''
"Like father, like son"
15 September 2011, Brian Hayes Curtin

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sorensen, Sean 1955 births Living people Irish male tennis players Irish expatriate sportspeople in West Germany Irish people of Norwegian descent 20th-century Irish sportsmen