Gilles Simon withdraws, Irishman Qualifies

World number 15 Gilles Simon has withdraw from the First Slam of the Decade in Australia Open. In result of the Frenchman's withdrawal Roger Federer has a much easier draw. Simon was due to face Brazilian Frederico Gil in the first round. The shuffle that has been made in the draw is that David Ferrer takes the Frenchman's spot in the draw and Isner takes Ferrers spot in the draw as a 33rd seed.

Here is the new projected draw for the fourth round

Projected Fourth Round Draw:
Roger Federer (1) vs David Ferrer (17) Dangers: Marcos Baghdatis, Lleyton Hewitt
Fernando Verdasco (9) vs Nikolay Davydenko (6) Dangers: Juan Carlos Ferrero
Novak Djokovic (3) vs Tommy Robredo (16) Dangers: Richard Gasquet, Mikhail Youzhny
Jo Wilfried Tsonga (10) vs Robin Soderling (8) Dangers: Tommy Haas

Andy Roddick (7) vs Fernando Gonzalez (11) Dangers: Sam Querrey, Thomas Berdych
Marin Cilic (14) vs Juan Marin Del Potro (4) Dangers: Stanislas Wawrinka, James Blake
Andy Murray (5) vs Gael Monfils (12) Dangers: John Isner

Radek Stepanek (13) vs Rafa Nadal (2) Dangers: Ivo Karlovic, Phillip Kohlschrieber,

Louk Sorensen becomes the first Irish player to qualify for a slam since 1985. The last player to qualify for a slam was Sean Doyle. His Father Sean Sorensen qualified for Wimbeldon in 1977 before losing to the great Rod Laver. He will play Yen-Hsun Lu ranked 101 in the world, he is a player who has taken one or two scalps along the way beating Andy Murray in the Olympics and David Nalbandian in the Australian Open both were ranked in the top 10 at the time. When you look at his ranking you see a player who is very inconsistent and Louk has a very good chance of causing an upset in the First Round.

Fellow Irishman Conor Niland failed at the last hurdle losing Ricardo Hocevar of Brazil in 3 sets 1-6 6-4 6-3. He can take a lot of positives away from the match after being so close to his first ever slam appearance too.