Tennis: Tennis enthusiasts may have their focus on Wimbledon this week but closer to home Conor Niland gets his Shelbourne Irish Open campaign under way against Britain's Alexander Slabinsky at the Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club in Dublin tomorrow.
Niland comes into the ATP Challenger tournament fresh from last week's win at the ITF Futures world-ranking event in his home town of Limerick. The Irish number two, who made the final draw through his 304 world ranking, will take to the Centre Court at 6.30pm tomorrow.
"The win at Limerick couldn't come at a better time for me, and if I play as well at Fitzwilliam I should have a very good week," said Niland, who defeated India's Harsh Mankad in last week's final.
Other Irish players in first round action tomorrow include wild cards Tristan Farron-Mahon, Colin O'Brien, Eoin Heavey plus James Cluskey who lost 6-3, 7-5 to Australia's Adam Feeney this evening.
Farron-Mahon will face a tough match when he takes on fourth seed and former world number 65, Kristian Pless from Denmark, at 11am. O'Brien plays number five seed Aisam-Ul-Haq Quereshi from Pakistan, while Heavey faces India's Prakash Amritraj.
Top seed Mischa Zverev from Germany also plays his first round tomorrow against Dutch qualifier Michel Koning. The 2006 Irish Open champion and world number 92 dispatched Juan Carlos-Ferrero, a former world number one, in the second round at Wimbledon last week but had to retire from his third round match.
Irish number one Louk Sorensen was forced to withdraw from the Fitzwilliam tournament due to injury. The Stuttgart-based world ranked 284 picked up a stomach muscle injury during the second round of Wimbledon qualifying.
Castlebar's Daniel Clancy attempted to become the sixth Irish player into the main draw but lost to Britain's Richard Bloomfield in today's final qualifying round.
This is the third year of the rejuvenated Irish Open and the first time it will be staged as a €64,000 ATP Challenger event.
The final takes place at the Fitzwilliam club in Dublin this Saturday and entry into the tournament is free.