Niland needs to nail first point in must-win match for Ireland

TENNIS:CONOR NILAND opens Ireland's Davis Cup campaign against Tunisia this afternoon at David Lloyd Riverview. The Irish number one plays Anis Ghorbel in the first match up, with Barry King following him in the second singles match against Tunisian number one Malek Jaziri.

It’s a must-win match for Ireland, who fell 3-2 to the Gilles Muller-led Luxembourg in March. Not only did Ireland miss out on a promotional shot for Group One but also a match against Britain, for whom world number four Andy Murray has declared his availability.

The losers of this weekend’s tie will fall from Euro/African Zone Group II to Group III in 2012. In that light Niland’s opener against Ghorbel is a crucial point to be won and will also set the tone.

“We’d prefer to stay in this group,” said Ireland’s non-playing captain Gary Cahill. “We don’t want to go to far away places and play in the round robin again. Sometimes you can never call it. You never know what’s going to happen. Sometimes someone can serve an ace at a key moment and there is nothing you can do about it and basically that’s what happened to us against Luxembourg.”

The 29-year-old Irish number one Niland is clearly on form and is the highest ranked player in the contest. Only Tunisia’s Jaziri’s ranking of 291 approaches the Irishman’s but is over 100 places below his current standing of 171.

But Niland harbours an ambition to work his way to the top 100, where he was edging towards prior to a hip injury and virus that laid him low for some weeks earlier in the season.

Tennis Ireland are also expecting all 500 seats at the indoor venue will be sold out, with Niland’s Wimbledon exploits continuing to have a carry-over effect for Irish tennis fans. Doubtlessly expectations will have been raised but Ireland cannot sidestep the fact that at home and with the higher-ranked players they are favourites.

“We are here to win,” added Cahill. “This tie for us is about winning and I think we have a good enough team to do that. It’s not going to be easy. I know Tunisia is going to be a very strong team. They have one player who’s good. But for us we are preparing to win. We are also preparing to improve our game.”

Ireland have improved since the tie against Luxembourg and King steps in to take the number-two place largely on form as his ranking is lower than that of James McGee, who plays in the doubles tomorrow with him.

McGee has just returned from playing in Morocco and did not participate in the launch on Wednesday due to fatigue.

It is King’s third Davis Cup involvement as he was in last year’s team and also took part against Luxembourg. The 26-year-old, ranked at 1,013, will have a tough time against Jaziri, an experienced 27-year-old, who has been playing Davis Cup since 2000.