Gannon on cusp of fulfilling childhood ambition as Ireland take on Barbados

“I wanted it since I was six. For me the biggest honour is to represent your country. I remember going to see [Conor] Niland playing against Lithuania in Fitzwilliam. I thought that was the best thing ever. I still have posters up in my room. That would be a dream for me.”

Conor Gannon is on the cusp of fulfilling a childhood ambition, one of two potential debutants, as Ireland take on Barbados in Bridgetown in the World Group 11 Davis Cup next Friday and Saturday.

The 20-year-old is part of a five-man squad that includes Simon Carr, Osgar O’hOisin, David O’Hare and the uncapped German born teenager Michael Agwi, who qualifies through his Irish mother; Conor Niland is the non-playing captain. Ireland got to this stage of the tournament having received a walkover against China earlier in the year.

Gannon, who switched from Tennessee State University to Memphis University this summer following his freshman year, is not your typical “tennis brat”, certainly not in demeanour, nor in the fact that the sport didn’t hold a primacy in his youth. Affable and engaging, he describes himself as akin to a “Jack Russell on the court, snappy and tenacious, but goofy off it”.

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There are trace elements of the traditional Irish elite tennis pathway, the trek from Leopardstown to the Tennis Ireland playing facility at Dublin City University that began while he was at primary school, the eight ITF (International Tennis Federation) junior titles, a cupboard full of Irish underage national titles and most recently claiming the Irish Close title in the summer.

There were times when he “fell out of love with tennis”, resented the demands imposed, the missed childhood playdates and how, as he grew older, it began to monopolise his time. Gannon loved sport, swam, ran, played GAA with Geraldine’s in Cornelscourt and rugby in St Michael’s College.

The introduction to tennis was on the two tarmac courts near his house, a glorified ball boy for his older brothers Jack, and Ben; dad David used to come over and hit some balls to appease his youngest son. His mum Karen played socially in Monkstown, so it was a natural starting place for her sons, all of whom received an initial tennis grounding from club coach Stephen O’Shea.

Gannon’s progressed quickly but there was a tariff. “I went out there [to DCU] at the age of eight and finished when I went into first year in school because I just couldn’t cope with travelling for an hour in the car after school, to be out there for 5.30pm, and then finishing at 9.30pm to head home.

“I had homework to do as Michael’s were strict enough on the academics. I got to bed at 11pm. So that was rough for a 12-year-old. I needed to get out of that environment.”

A typical Saturday morning started at 7am to prepare for rugby – he was accomplished enough to play second centre on the JCT – often followed by a GAA match and then from 4-6pm, Leinster squad tennis training. His parents never pushed, they facilitated.

He dabbled in the Tennis Europe tournaments at the various age grades, playing maybe four a year, mostly in Ireland. Anyone who envisaged a professional tennis career plays in 20-plus events. There are other handicaps for Irish players, playing on Astro surfaces on which no one plays on the continent and a lack of hitting partners of the requisite standard.

In transition year Gannon decided to concentrate on tennis to the exclusion of other sports. He spent time living alone in the Netherlands, five weeks on, five weeks off, and smiled when he recalled how naïve his attitude was starting out.

“Holland is a great base to travel to tournaments around Europe in France, Luxembourg and Spain etc. I slept on an Inflatable bed, travelled an hour by bus to catch a train. It was a taste of real life in the lower reaches of the tour. I was used to being looked after transport-wise in school, so this was a culture shock. It was chaos for the first three months.”

A high ranking initially equated to tough draws, but the results and performances improved. The upshot – increased belief and tournament victories.

The European Junior Tennis Championships in Klosters, Switzerland, attracts a significant number of American college scouts and in the 2019 tournament Gannon impressed to a point where the assistant head coach at Tennessee State University, James McKie, a Scot, subsequently made contact to recruit the young Irishman on a partial scholarship.

Gannon verbally committed before formally signing in November 2019 when in fifth year. Tennessee is a perennial top 10 college for tennis in the US, and the programme is headed by Chris Woodruff, once world ranked 29 in singles and with victories over seven world number ones in Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, Yevgeni Kafelnikov, Thomas Muster, Gustavo Kuerten, Marcelo Rios and Carlos Moya during his career.

Woodruff was a demanding taskmaster, says Gannon. “He was trying to make us mentally strong. It was brutal sometimes. He was trying to make you quit, make you think about what you really wanted to do in tennis.

“I thought, ‘this guy hates me, this guy wants me to go’ but now looking back it was fair play to him because he was pushing boundaries. I wouldn’t do that to other people if I was coaching, [but] he knows his stuff.

“What I learned most is belief. You don’t have to be the best, the smoothest, the cleanest game, you just have to have the mentality to stick in for one extra shot; you will win, make the other guy tap out, work him into submission.”

Gannon coped with the 6am starts, the weights sessions, running and long hours of tennis practice daily, either side of college work, a regimen that was familiar from playing other sports growing up in Ireland. He made the Tennessee team as a freshman, playing either number five or six singles, and enjoyed some good wins.

Woodruff’s micromanagement style – players wore Whoop bands that collate recovery and sleep patterns into data which went to the head coach – and that of other coaches would include telling players where to hit serves during matches and upbraiding them in real time for unforced errors.

After initially being a little homesick Gannon enjoyed his time at Tennessee as he broadened his horizons to embrace a sliver of college life beyond the tramlines but for tennis reasons he decided to switch to Memphis university, to where he will return after the Davis Cup tie this weekend.

He explained: “I can’t wait to start my next chapter. I thought the coaches in Memphis would be better for me. They have a track record of producing great tennis players. To be at an elite level I have to be able to hit every shot. To not hit my backhand is suicidal,” a reference to the in-match interference he endured at times in Tennessee.

“It would do me fine if I was playing fifth or sixth on a team but to be one, two or three you need to be hitting your backhand. The coaches in Memphis will allow me to do that. They are more hands off. In Tennessee a coach would come up and go ‘serve out wide.’ They would come over and tell me how to play the point, whereas in Memphis you do your shot.

“I don’t like being told what to do. I am not a brat, but tennis is an imaginative sport, you need to think for yourself. I can’t play tennis [to other people’s specifications].”

Three years left in college one outline goal is to make the Top 400 on the ATP by the time he leaves. He considers it doable if he continues to evolve as a player and develop his game. But first there is the not-insignificant milestone of trying to realise that childhood ambition in the Caribbean next weekend.