TENNIS:THERE ARE stacks of paper falling off the desk, blizzards of statistics to explain how Ireland's Conor Niland let slip a 4-1 lead in the fifth set and saw his dream of a second round match at Wimbledon against Roger Federer slip away.
The 29-year-old Limerick man, who has soldiered alone for years on the world circuit to build up a ranking and achieve his ambition of playing in a Grand Slam tournaments, was so close to grasping his opportunity to advance before finally letting go yesterday afternoon on court 17 as a large Irish crowd with tricolours and rugby shirts howled and whooped at every stroke.
Niland came in after the match against Frenchman Adrian Mannarino and could have spoken about a third set that took 70 minutes and offered him opportunities.
He could have spoken about the blustery conditions around the outside court, the long run he has had qualifying and playing in Nottingham, qualifying and playing at Queen’s and qualifying and playing in Wimbledon.
He could have spoken about the disparity in ranking, his 181 to Mannarino’s 55 but the 29-year-old knew that he had one foot on a court with the 16-times Grand Slam winner Federer before it fell away. The fifth set sits like an aberration. Leading 4-1, serving for 5-1 and eventually losing it 6-4 was a lesson hard learned.
“Yeah I’m really disappointed,” said the Irish number one.
“It’s still a great experience. The last whole week has been really amazing, apart from the last 15 minutes which kind of spoiled it. I will try and not let that kind of affect the whole memory of it too much. But yeah, it’s a pity, a pity I didn’t come through.
“I’ve played enough tennis matches to know the lead in a big match like that can sometimes get away from you,” he added.
“I didn’t feel that nervous but I definitely started to make more errors and started to make unforced errors. He played a good game at 4-1 which gave him a little bit of momentum. But obviously I stopped playing the way I had been.”
The match fluctuated wildly and neither player could really put light between the other. Niland though took the first set after dominating his serve and threatening that of Mannarino. Earning eight break points he finally closed out the set 4-6.
In the second set the French player reversed the trend and started to catch the Niland serve. He earned six service break points and after 42 minutes had levelled 1-1.
His left-handed served kicked wildly towards the crowd and his flicking forehand had Niland scrambling. But the Irishman was easily equal to the challenge and although he lost the third set on a tie break after holding three break points on the Mannarino serve at 6-5 and serving for the set in the tie break, he somehow gathered himself and struck back.
Taking the fourth set 4-6 the match narrowed. Neither player giving ground. It had become one of those classic Wimbledon duels.
Both were offering up their serves to the other but when it came to the fifth set, it was Niland who just forced the shots too often long and too often wide. They were fine margins and even as he led 4-1 in the fifth set the match remained very much alive.
A forehand long in the eighth game and another wide in the ninth gave Mannarino hope. He fed off it and when it came down to the end game a Niland backhand at the net drifted over the line for 6-4, the Frenchman winning in exactly four hours.
“I think I did a really good job of coming out in the fourth,” said Niland. “I could have gotten down on myself so I did a good job of getting an early break and winning that fourth set.
“I gave myself a really good chance to win it. I played some really good tennis. It was a bit of a scrappy match with the wind and he was kind of an unconventional player and obviously with it being and unusual kind of situation with me as well . . but I enjoyed it. It’s just a pity.”
“Now I’m going to take a couple of weeks off. My hip was pretty sore the last couple of days but it didn’t affect me today. I’m going to rest that. I don’t know if I’ll play a tournament before Davis Cup (July) so maybe Davis Cup is my next event.”
What he can take into that Davis Cup match against Tunisia in Dublin is that despite his rank, he knows he is not outclassed by players more than 100 places higher than him in the rankings. He has shown courage, ability, a fearless can-do attitude that many players would do well to follow. Also a way forward for Irish tennis.
When he lamented the fact before yesterday’s match that he had no Irish role models in his tennis world growing up, it didn’t occur to Niland that he is exactly the player to fill that gap.
SHORTER ORDER FOR ISNER THIS TIME
INSTEAD OF 11 hours and 70-68 in the fifth set, it took John Isner only three minutes over two hours to defeat Nicolas Mahut in their eagerly-anticipated rematch at Wimbledon.
After last year’s record-breaking three-day epic on Court 18, it seemed inevitable that the first-round repeat would fail to live up to the hype, and so it proved as Isner dominated to book a second-round date with 16th seed Nicolas Almagro.
Mahut led by a break in the third set but Isner hit back to force a second tie-break before sealing victory 7-6 (7/4) 6-2 7-6 (8/6).
The American said: “It wasn’t easy but obviously it was considerably quicker than last time. I was happy how I played, especially in the third set.
“I’m glad they put us out on this court. I don’t know if they wanted to tarnish the memory of what happened on Court 18. It was unlikely it would live up to that match. It’s a huge relief.”
