Tennis: Buoyant Niland vows to take spotlight in his stride
CONOR NILAND says he won't allow the increased level of expectation to weigh too heavily on his shoulders in next week's French Open qualifying.
After his outstanding achievement of winning the Israel Open, Niland will be under the spotlight in his debut participation on the clay courts of Roland Garros.
But the Limerick native, who has improved from his career-high mark of No 222 in the world rankings to 165, says he will take the increase in profile in his stride as he aims to reach the main draw of a Grand Slam for the first time -- he needs to win three qualifying matches.
"It might be a bit of a problem if you dwelt too much on what people were thinking about your prospects in the French Open," said Niland, who has become the highest-ranked Irish-born player in history.
"Winning the Israel Open is a big confidence-boost for me, but I won't be putting too much pressure on myself. There are a lot of very good specialist clay-court players out there, but I'll go into my first-round match with a very positive attitude, and we'll see what happens after that.
"In the qualifying of any Grand Slam, the first-round match is always a bit tricky, but if I get over that, I should be okay."
Niland has played in the qualifiers for six Grand Slams -- three times at the Australian Open, twice at Wimbledon and once at the US Open. His best attempt was a third-round place in Melbourne in January.
"Of all the Grand Slams, the cut-off point for the French Open qualifying is the highest -- at around No 230 or 240. But I've generally been at around 260 to 270 at that time," he explained.
Last week, the Irish No 1 had the choice of entering for one of three clay-court Challengers, but he opted instead for the hard-court Challenger in Israel, which offered more ranking points.
"This week, I was due to play in a clay-court Futures in England, but I pulled out of it because of the long week I had in Israel," added Niland.
However, it's only a month since Niland's last experience of clay-court action -- he won three matches at the US clay-court Championships.
"It's not as if my game is based around serve and volleying to a large extent," he said. "I've got good ground-strokes, so I'll be comfortable enough in the long baseline rallies which are so much a part of matches on clay."
- Paddy Hickey
Irish Independent
