Tennis: Niland firmly focused on French Open after taking Israeli crown
Conor Niland on his way to defeating Brazilian Thiago Alves in the final of the Israel Open in Tel Aviv. NIR KEIDAR/SPORTSFILE
CONOR Niland has set qualifying for this month's French Open as the next target on his hit list after his outstanding feat of capturing the singles title in the Israel Open on Saturday.
The Limerick native came up trumps in his first ATP Challenger event since the New Delhi Open in August 2008, defeating Brazil's No 4 seed Thiago Alves 5-7 7-6 (7/3) 6-3, after a marathon three hours and eight minutes, in the final of the $100,000 outdoor hardcourt tournament at Ramat Hasharon.
And after two days' rest, he will begin his preparations for his debut assault on the qualifying round of the French Open, needing to win three matches to make the 128-strong main draw which commences on Sunday, May 23.
His participation in the Roland Garros event will mark his seventh attempt to clinch a place in the main draw of a Grand Slam.
His best performance was recorded in this year's Australian Open, where he won two matches before losing in the final round to Brazil's Ricardo Hocevar.
toughness
"I will be hitting with a number of lads at the National Tennis Centre (at DCU), and then I'll fly to Paris on Friday and get in a good bit of practice on the clay before the start of the qualifying on Tuesday of next week," said Niland.
As in his earlier matches against higher-ranked opponents, Rainer Schuettler and Harel Levy, 222-ranked Niland showed no respect for the form book against world No 116 Alves.
After levelling at one set all, he appeared to be on the back foot when Alves quickly raced into a 3-0 lead in the final set.
But the Munster man underlined his mental toughness and the vast improvement in his game by subsequently adopting a much more aggressive approach to his play, and this policy was rewarded when he took six games on the trot to seal victory.
In addition to his cash prize of just over €11,000, Niland picked up 100 world ranking points, and this haul will see him make the huge breakthrough of dipping under the top-200 barrier for the first time -- with a place of around 163 likely when the ATP rankings are updated later today.
Thus, Niland will leapfrog his Davis Cup team-mate Louk Sorensen, who is placed at 220, and become the highest ranked player in the history of Irish men's tennis after American-born Matt Doyle, who peaked at 65 on March 15, 1982.
To add to an outstanding week for Irish tennis, unseeded Dublin duo James Cluskey and Colin O'Brien captured the doubles title in the ITF Men's Futures event in Edinburgh, defeating the No 3 seeds, their fellow Dub Barry King and Britain's Marcus Willis, 6-3 6-3.
- Paddy Hickey
Irish Independent
