Tennis

Following on a previous topic on the thread (about Sam Barry) he's pushing hard for a place on the DC team to face Tunisia. He's probably the one Irish player capable of making the top-100 in singles, though his doubles form is really looking good. He's a full senior now so it's time to move. Losing Louk Sorenson is going to hurt, but the Irish team is looking good for a 4-1 win.

On the tour side, Conor Niland was supposed to get a wild card for Wimbledon (under a long standing agreement) which didn't happen. But he was unlucky in England last week and if he gets over his aversion to grass could do well in Wimbledon qualifiers. Though at least Ireland will have one rep, of sorts, in the 1st week of Wimbledon.

Niland wins first Wimbledon qualifier
Monday, 13 June 2011 16:29
Ireland's Conor Niland has won his first match of qualifying for Wimbledon in a dramatic last set decicder.
Niland beat Josselin Ouanna of France 6-3 4-6 8-6. Niland was 5-2 down in the deciding set but recovered to progress to the next round.
The Limerick man must win two more matches to get through to the first round proper at SW19.
He will meet Paolo Lorenzi or Greg Jones next.

rte.ie/sport/tennis/2011/0613/nilandc.html

It's Greg Jones next up! He beat the the number 11 seed in three sets. Dunno much about the guy round 220 in the world and relatively young, so could be a surprise package.
looked like it had gotten away from him after he dropped three break points at the start of the third, and lost the game. Took him a long time recover from that. Fair play to him for pulling it out of the fire the way he did

What didn't get much airtime is that Conor saved a whopping 5 match points! Lots of Irish interest in Wimbledon this year with Conor and the Irish-based Diatchenko playing today.

Another big win for Conor in the second round of quelled today on three sets. Played some great stuff, jones couldn't handle the lobs and groundstrokes during the second and third set. Anything that jones threw at him came straight back

Best of luck to Conor in the final qualifier. On the verge :)

Best of luck to him indeed - taking on Nikola Metkic of Croatia on Court "C" tomorrow - up 2nd, so due on approx 12.15. Metkic is ranked 274, so I think this is probably Niland's best chance to date to make a main draw.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Real ale Madrid

Best of luck to him indeed - taking on Nikola Metkic of Croatia on Court "C" tomorrow - up 2nd, so due on approx 12.15. Metkic is ranked 274, so I think this is probably Niland's best chance to date to make a main draw.

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Got the lowdown from an insider aka that man above. Reckons that Metkic is solid but Niland should have enough for him.

All going well Ireland will have 2 players in the singles main draw this weekend. Mtkic is good but has a history of seriously choking. Hasn't fulfilled his potential as a junior, mainly because of poor coaching. Conor has the edge, even if grass is not a good surface for him. GC expected him to go out in the 1st!

Play was completely suspended by about half six tonight. Players are due back on court at 10.30 in the morning. The Wozniak match is still to be completed so Niland probably won't be on court until around noon, weather permitting

Niland’s on court now. Broke his opponent in the first game and now leads 2-0

Didn't realise it was a 5 set match! 4-2 up anyway - play seems to be suspended again - will barely get done by Monday at this rate.

This happened to him a couple of weeks ago, in a good position, messed about by rain until the match had to be completed indoors. Won't happen now, but he would have done a number on the Croat (called a Serbian on Sport at 7 the other night, yikes).

Play abandoned for the day. Still 4-2 Niland, Diatchenko didn't get on court.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Spudulika

This happened to him a couple of weeks ago, in a good position, messed about by rain until the match had to be completed indoors. Won't happen now, but he would have done a number on the Croat (called a Serbian on Sport at 7 the other night, yikes).

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His opponent that day went on to play Nadal in the 2nd round of Queens. He was 1 set up and cruising 3-1 in the 2nd at the time. Play starts at 10:30 again this morning but the forecast isn't good again.

I heard last evening that no matter what WImbledon will insist the matches with qualifiers in them go ahead as normal - what a load of tosh, they probably won't get finished until Sunday! Plus Roehampton is the closest thing to a field of spuds that you'll ever see!

At least Conor's up first and will hopefully avoid the expected late afternoon rain.

Spoke to soon, they've now been delayed twice today and have only completed 10 games. Currently Niland leads 6-3,4-3 with serve in the 2nd. He's controlled his own service games quite easily and has had a good few break points which he hasn't put away. Hopefully theses delays won't affect his performance.

I hope he can keep it together and take the next set that he needs.

Niland wins 6-3 7-6(5) 6-4

Great stuff