Court time puts everything in perspective

TENNIS/Davis Cup: Johnny Watterson hears from Stephen Nugent about getting back - after a 'horrendous' couple of years - to the game he plays best

Last week, things were turning for Stephen Nugent. The 24-year-old international tennis player had recently been informed by Tennis Ireland of his selection for the Davis Cup side to face Slovenia this weekend in Fitzwilliam. Nugent had also just lost a compelling three-set final on a tiebreak in the Dublin County Championships in Carrickmines to Colin O'Brien.

But his mood was one of taking in the whole picture, not the more immediate anxiety of having lost a final. Nugent was at a place where he was again satisfied with his life. After two-and-a-half years out of the game, his outlook has begun to brighten, his view on tennis has changed.

His short run of form and selection for international competition have started to spark off thoughts in his mind that on-the-road professional tennis is again a possibility.

It is the third time Nugent has been selected for a Davis Cup tie. The first time he played for his country, Ireland also faced Slovenia. The second time it was against Egypt.

"So now against Slovenia again," he muses. "All of these years later."

Almost GAA-like, Nugent's family have decorated tennis on several fronts. His elder brother and current coach, Michael, was a feisty Davis Cup player, while his cousin Karen also played junior Wimbledon and international Federation Cup for Ireland until illness prematurely halted her career.

"Getting back on the Davis Cup team I would actually class as one of the best achievements of my life," says Nugent. "Considering what I've been through and considering the last two years. . . to get back on the team on merit, I think it's just a great achievement.

"There may have been higher points, playing junior Wimbledon and maybe winning other titles like the national indoors and Davis Cup the first time. But this means a lot to me. This means a lot to be able to represent my country again."

The former professional player's re-emergence and almost immediate embrace by Ireland are the stuff of a Boy's Own tale. But it may not rest as positively with Barry Duggan, whom Nugent - along with a friend, Dermot Cooper - assaulted late one night on Grafton Street in April 2003.

Of the attack there is no question. The two initially denied attacking Duggan but pleaded guilty to the charge of assault on day five of their trial in June of last year. And though both had voluntarily gone to the Garda in the days following the assault, Judge Donagh McDonagh, at the Circuit Criminal Court, sentenced them to three years - but suspended the last two years and nine months because of their "clean" records.

The two were committed to Mountjoy, but were immediately transferred to the semi-open training unit in the prison complex.

The incident captured wide public attention, because it was perceived to follow a pattern of middle-class boys behaving badly under the influence of drink.

The horror story and the subsequent complex trial of a number of young men following the fatal assault on a youth outside the Burlington Hotel were still fresh in the public mind, and the blaze of publicity suggested this type of behaviour was happening regularly, if not necessarily with fatal results.

As with the Burlington case, alleged accounts of what happened appeared in print as newspapers scrambled for details of what happened in Grafton Street. In the haste to print, Independent Newspapers were fined €25,000 for contempt of court following the publication by the Evening Herald of a story and photographs relating to the incident. The publication occurred after charges had been laid.

Public sympathy naturally drifted toward Duggan, the injured Sligo librarian, who was hospitalised and subsequently put into a medically induced coma.

He was released from hospital the following month but continued to receive treatment from speech therapists, occupational therapists and physiotherapists for several months after.

As soon as the news broke and charges were laid, one of the most visible 22-year-old tennis players in Ireland put away his racquet and disappeared from view.

Nugent, understandably cautious, accepts that justice was done but his instincts are to move on from it, not dwell on what he describes as a "horrendous" phase of his life.

It may not attract much sympathy but like most professional athletes, Nugent takes whatever positive things he can from a situation that could have ended with worse and longer-

lasting consequences. He knows that.

And in pleading guilty he understands too there are probably people who will continue to judge him for what happened. That he will deal with himself. In his head he's definitely moving on.

"It must have been two-and-a-half years off the scene, not playing. No tennis whatsoever," he says. "Yes, the decision (to quit) would have been as a result of the court case . . . it would have been.

"I mean when you are going through something as traumatic as that, it has an effect on everything you do. I thought it was the right thing to do. I didn't feel like playing. I wasn't enjoying it and I didn't really have the fire in the belly to do it any more.

"In ways it has been positive for all the lessons I've learned. It was obviously a very hard time in my life. You learn a lot of things when you go through such low points like that. Obviously the situation itself was horrendous," he adds. "But I don't want to get into that too much.

"I mainly take away positive things from it, mainly positive. From after the incident, through it all up until now, it's had a positive effect on me. It's made me stronger. It's made me appreciate more what I have. It made me grow up a lot.

"Before, you know, I didn't really know how good I had it because it had always been good. When it got bad then you can realise and say, 'Yeah, that was good'. You can see the contrast. So you experience both sides of it. Now generally I'm happy with life and just trying to rebuild and live."

Back a month now, he will target tournaments in England after this weekend's Davis Cup in an attempt to get his ranking down lower than the current, stratospheric 1,432.

His selection for Ireland, after just one month back, illustrates that people like Davis Cup captain Owen Casey and whoever else influences his decision-making see something valuable in Nugent's game and in his personality.

It could have been so easy to leave him out. Few would have questioned it. Some would have expected it. Equally, many will support his return.

There is no doubt Nugent is a battling player, and against Conor O'Brien in the Carrickmines final, he could just as easily have added another title had a little more rust been hammered off his game.

Disappointed, he's philosophical about it, and there is the bigger picture to look at now. He would also have sensed support from the small gathering. There was no finger-pointing, no animosity.

"I'm back about a month now," he says. "When I first started playing it was purely for fun, just to enjoy it in the summer with a few friends. As the weeks went by I started playing well and began to win matches. I started to think maybe I can give this another go. So I did.

"I'm trying to juggle coaching and playing now. After Davis Cup there are a couple of tournaments in England, professional tournaments, that I'm think of playing. Futures. So I'm thinking of that, maybe then come back, play the Masters here, play another few weeks and then the indoors again around Christmas.

"I'm just feeling it out, seeing if I'm good enough, seeing if I still like travelling, slugging it out. I don't know."

Nugent lifts his head, perspiration still rolling off his face in the 30-degree heat.

"Things could be worse," he says. "Situations could be worse. I'm enjoying life, enjoying being out here playing tennis. Just got a perspective on things."