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Luck of the Irish all bad at US Open

Updated: 2011-09-01 10:16

(Agencies)

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Luck of the Irish all bad at US Open 

Louk Sorensen of Ireland serves to Rogerio Dutra Da Silva of Brazil during their match at the US Open tennis tournament in New York, August 31, 2011. [Photo/Agencies] 

NEW YORK - The luck of the Irish was all bad at the US Open as the second representative from the Emerald Isle was forced to retire during his first-round match at Flushing Meadows on Wednesday.

Louk Sorensen, ranked 618th, appeared to get a good break on Wednesday when his scheduled opponent, sixth-seeded Robin Soderling of Sweden, withdrew because of illness.

Instead, Sorensen got to play 'lucky loser', Rogerio Dutra da Silva of Brazil.

But his good fortune ran out when he retired himself, when trailing 6-0 3-6 6-4 1-0, due to cramping.

On Tuesday, 197th-ranked Conor Niland quit his opening-round match against top-seeded Novak Djokovic of Serbia, fearing he would get sick on the court from a bad case of food poisoning.

Niland and Sorensen had both fought their way into the main draw as qualifiers, marking the first time two men from Ireland had made it into the same grand slam tournament since tennis turned professional in 1968.

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