Conor Niland

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Conor Niland
Country (sports) Ireland
ResidenceLimerick, Ireland
Born (1981-09-19) 19 September 1981 (age 42)
Birmingham, Great Britain
Height1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Turned pro2005
PlaysRight-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize money$217,221
Singles
Career record9-11
Career titles0 ATP
Highest rankingNo. 129 (6 December 2010)
Current rankingNo. 197 (29 August 2011)
Grand Slam singles results
Australian OpenQ3 (2010)
French OpenQ2 (2010)
Wimbledon1R (2011)
US Open1R (2011)
Doubles
Career record0–0
Career titles0 ATP
Highest ranking173 ( July 11, 2011)
Last updated on: July 5, 2011.

Conor Niland (born 19 September 1981) is an Irish professional tennis player. He was born in Birmingham, England, and grew up in Limerick, Ireland. He attended St. Nessan's National School in Mungret, Co. Limerick. He currently is the highest ranked Irish tennis player[1] and has been playing for the Ireland Davis Cup team since 2000.[2]

Career

Niland has spent most of his career on the Futures and Challenger circuits, although he has played a handful of ATP World Tour tournaments. He is the top ranked Irish player. As of 6 March 2010, he has played 25 Davis Cup matches for Ireland with a record of 15 wins & 10 losses (12–9 in singles & 3–1 in doubles). After 4 previous defeats, he won his first ever Grand Slam qualifying match on 26 August 2009 when defeating Australia's Joseph Sirianni 6–0 6–4 in the first qualifying round of the US Open, but in the end he failed to qualify for the main draw.

In January 2010, he lost in the last qualifying round of the Qatar Open in Doha, and in the first major of the year he defeated Henri Kontinen (6–4,6–4) and Jesse Witten (2–6,6–1,6–4) in the first 2 qualifying rounds for the Australian Open to leave him one game away from the main draw. However, he lost to Ricardo Hocevar (6–1,4–6,3–6) in the final qualifying round. In Houston, Texas, at the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships, he qualified for his first ATP main draw but lost in the first round. His improvement during the year continued when winning the Israel Open title, Rainer Schüttler among his highest-ranked victim. The win pushed him into the top 200 for the first time in his career, lifting him to 165 in the world, and he reclaimed his place as Irish No.1 from Louk Sorensen. In November 2010, Niland won another ATP challenger event, this time the ATP Salzburg Indoors in Austria, lifting him to a career high ranking of 129.

2011

After an encouraging start to 2011 saw Niland reach the quarter-finals of the Heilbronn Open in Germany, he struggled throughout the first half of the year with illness and injury and fell to a ranking of 184 by June. He came into great form for the grass court season, however, and picked up 4 straight wins to qualify for the AEGON Trophy in Nottingham and also defeat 96th-ranked Donald Young in the first round. After Tatsuma Ito ended that winning streak, Niland turned his attention to the Wimbledon qualifying rounds. He successfully negotiated all 3 rounds, defeating Josselin Ouanna, Greg Jones and finally Nikola Mektić, to qualify for his first ever Grand Slam event.[3][4] In doing so, he also became the first Irishman to reach the main draw at Wimbledon since Sean Sorensen in 1977 and 1980. He faced Frenchman Adrian Mannarino in the first round where he lost in five sets, having led 4-1 with a double-break in the fifth set. Had he won, Niland would have faced six-time champion Roger Federer in the second round.[5][6]

Niland is currently taking part in the 2011 US Open. In the first round of the Singles Qualifying, Conor faced Pavol Červenák and won 6–1, 6–4.[7] In the second round, Niland defeated Tsung-Hua Yang 6–2, 6–3[8] In the third round, Niland beat Matwé Middelkoop 2–6, 6–1, 6–4 for a place in the Main Draw.[9] This is Niland's second time in a row to qualify for the main draw of a Grand Slam. In the first round, Niland will face World No. 1, Novak Djokovic.[10]

Personal life

Although Niland was born in Birmingham, his parents moved the family back to Limerick when he was 2 years old. He stayed there until the age of 16, when he went to Millfield, the public school in Somerset that is renowned for its sporting prowess. After three years there, Niland went to study English at University of California, Berkeley, before leaving to focus on playing tennis professionally in 2005. His father, Ray, played at corner back for the Mayo senior Gaelic football team, while his sister Gina is a former Irish No.1 tennis player.

Singles titles

Legend (Singles)
Grand Slam (0)
ATP World Tour Masters 1000 (0)
ATP World Tour 500 (0)
ATP World Tour 250 (0)
ATP Challenger Tour (3)
ITF Futures (5)
Wins (8)
No. Date Tournament Surface Opponent in the final Score
1. 7 August 2006 United Kingdom Wrexham, F12 Hard Italy Riccardo Ghedin 6–4, 2–6, 6–3
2. 19 March 2007 Croatia Vrsar, F4 Clay Hungary Kornél Bardóczky 6–4, 6–4
3. 28 April 2008 United Kingdom Bournemouth, F7 Clay (I) France Pierre Metenier 7–5, 6–0
4. 23 June 2008 Republic of Ireland Limerick F2 Carpet (I) India Harsh Mankad 6–3, 6–4
5. 4 August 2008 India New Delhi III Hard Czech Republic Tomáš Cakl 6–4, 6–4
6. 9 November 2009 United States Florida F28 Clay Australia James Lemke 3–6, 6–4, 6–0
7. 8 May 2010 Israel Ramat HaSharon Hard Brazil Thiago Alves 5–7, 7–6(7–5), 6–3
8. 21 November 2010 Austria Salzburg Hard (i) Poland Jerzy Janowicz 7–6(7–5), 6–7(2–7), 6–3
Runner-up (5)
No. Date Tournament Surface Opponent in the final Score
1. 26 March 2007 Croatia Rovinj, F5 Clay Croatia Marko Tkalec 4–6, 5–7
2. 17 September 2007 United Kingdom London, F17 Hard Austria Martin Fischer 4–6, 3–6
3. 31 March 2008 United Kingdom Exmouth, F6 Carpet (i) United Kingdom Joshua Goodall 4–6, 6–7(3–7)
4. 12 October 2009 France Saint-Dizier, F18 Hard France Antony Dupuis 3–6, 6–4, 4–6
5. 2 November 2009 United States Birmingham, F27 Clay Australia James Lemke 6–4, 2–6, 5–7

Grand Slam Singles Performance Timeline

Tournament 2008 2009 2010 2011
Australian Open Q1 Q1 Q3 Q2
French Open A A Q2 Q1
Wimbledon Q1 Q1 Q1 1R
US Open A Q2 Q2 1R

References

  1. ^ "ATP rankings-Ireland". ATP. 22 August 2011. Retrieved 23 August 2011.
  2. ^ "Conor Niland Davis Cup Profile". ATP. 23 August 2011. Retrieved 23 August 2011.
  3. ^ "Niland qualifies for Wimbledon". RTE Sport. 18 June 2011. Retrieved 21 June 2011.
  4. ^ "Niland books place at Wimbledon". Irish Times. 18 June 2011. Retrieved 21 June 2011.
  5. ^ "Niland's effort comes up just short". Irish Times. 21 June 2011. Retrieved 21 June 2011.
  6. ^ "Niland edged out in five-set Wimbledon epic". RTE Sport. 21 June 2011. Retrieved 21 June 2011.
  7. ^ "Irish advance in US Open qualifiers". RTE Sport. 23 August 2011. Retrieved 24 August 2011.
  8. ^ "Niland closes in on US Open qualification". RTE Sport. 26 August 2011. Retrieved 26 August 2011.
  9. ^ "Niland and Sorenson reach US Open main draw". RTE Sport. 26 August 2011. Retrieved 26 August 2011.
  10. ^ "Niland to face Djokovic at US Open". RTE Sport. 27 August 2011. Retrieved 27 August 2011.

External links

Template:Top ten Irish male singles tennis players

Template:Persondata


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