TENNIS: JOHNNY WATTERSONtalks to Conor Niland ahead of the Irishman's first round match against Adrian Mannarino of France today

HE TOOK only half an hour on the practice courts in the shadow of Centre Court. But Conor Niland comes into his first Grand Slam match today against Adrian Mannarino with the hope gleaned from a career of facing both success and failure.

Sitting in the players’ restaurant overlooking the new Court Three and watching the rain scythe down, the Irish number one knows that a meeting with Roger Federer in the second round, should he win today, is an ambition not just of his but of his French opponent.

These few weeks have tested him. At Queen’s he had rain delays. At the qualification tournament in Roehampton he had rain wash it out. Yesterday rain again entered his preparations with matches being re-jigged to different courts and pushed back.

“The thing about tennis players is we never really know when we’re on. I’m sure Mannarino is just as excited as I am about the prospect,” says Niland. “I’ll just have to compete really well. He’s very, very good. He’s 50 in the world and that doesn’t happen by accident. I’m trying not to think about it (Federer) but it’s at the back of your mind. It’s not as if you need a carrot to win a match at Wimbledon, but it throws up something a little extra in the whole mix.

“He (Mannirino) played three matches at Queen’s a couple of weeks ago so a lot of people have seen him play. I saw him before, so we have a really good idea of what he does. It always helps but you never really know until you are out there the little subtle things that are going on. But I definitely have a very good idea of what he’s going to do.”

It was Niland’s fourth attempt to qualify at Wimbledon. But he has been here twice before as a spectator at finals and also when his older sister Gina played in the junior tournament, when he was nine or 10-years-old. The huge site, which including the club’s car parks, cover 42 acres is both familiar and daunting. But he has become used to playing higher ranked players and the grass here is slower than at the Bank of England Club, where he played the three qualification rounds.

“I can remember messing around at a mini-tennis place down the back of the site, so I spent most of my week there,” he says. “I only have vague memories of the place. I don’t really know the layout but every Slam is like that, you need a day to get your bearings.

“The grass is slower than it was at Roehampton, it really checks up,” adds Niland. “It doesn’t skip through the courts. It’s really quite slow for a grass court. I’m not sure if the practice courts at Aorangi are the exact same as the real courts but I presume they are. But the fact they are slow is nice. I’m a ground stroker so it’s fine by me. My record against lefties tends to be pretty good. With the courts being quite slow his leftie serve won’t be quite as effective, it will check up a little bit, so that will be alright.”

His match is the third on Court 17, which is situated between the Show Court one and Centre Court. Play starts at 12.00 noon and the two matches on before hand are a women’s singles match and the end of a three set match that was interrupted yesterday by the rain. Japan’s Ayumi Morita and Tamira Paszek from Austria currently sit 7-5, 3-6, 0-2. Mid afternoon would be a probable starting time weather permitting.

“I didn’t have somebody to look up to and say ‘if he can do it, so can I’,” he says hoping his efforts have achieved some significance. “That’s a big thing in sport, to have somebody to look up to. There’s no reason why people can’t do it. In Limerick, we don’t have any indoor courts. So hopefully people can look at me and think, why not?”