On Tennis: Across The Bay Bridge from San Francisco, past Oakland and into Berkeley, you find yourself in one of California's most desirable areas around the University of California (Cal). Telegraph Avenue, just down from the campus, is one of those bustling sunshine streets straight out of an American soap where no male or female is anything but radiantly healthy and, critically, under 25 years old.
Irish Davis Cup player Conor Niland can rightfully claim to be both. At 24, the Limerick native has been earning attention in the local San Francisco Chronicle for his collegiate record with Cal, which up to several weeks ago was at a ridiculous streak of 19 wins and zero defeats. Now in his final year studying English, Niland was ranked the third best university player in America until a few recent defeats knocked him down to his current ranking of six.
Not only was the number-three rank the highest any Irish player has reached in American college tennis, but his current mark of six also seeds him for the 64-player National Championships (NCAAs) on May 24th in the equally prestigious Californian University at Stanford.
As a result of his flying form, the Irishman has also been chosen as Player of the Year. It is only Cal's second such award in school history, the only other Cal player to have earned the honour being Randy Nixon in 1983. But for now it's the prospect of the singles championships keeping the head clear through exam time.
"That's something I'm looking forward to," says Niland, who is a brother of Federation Cup player and former Irish number one Gina, international player Ross and Lansdowne rugby player Ray. "I then play a challenger event before coming back to Ireland to take part in three tournaments."
Niland, who reluctantly admits to once beating the current world number one, Roger Federer, when they were both 13, hopes to earn a world ranking in the top 300 by the end of this year and reach the top 200 by the summer of 2007. If he could climb the ladder that steadily and avoid injury, it would easily make him the highest ranked Irish professional on the circuit.
At that level he would also be sniffing around qualification tournaments for entry into the four Grand Slam events in Australia, France, London and the US. "The tournaments in Ireland this summer - Limerick, Brookfield and Fitzwilliam - are really good opportunities for me," he says.
"I've a chance to get in on my own right with my current world ranking of 450, but I'll probably get a wild card. The top 500 was my goal at the end of last year and I'd like a top 200 rank next year.
"Getting to the top 100 means Grand Slams and that's where you want to be. That's my goal. I think more and more qualifiers are making runs deep into the tournaments. If you can get into the top 200 or 150 in the world, you can legitimately win matches at the top level."
In November 2003 he suffered a serious wrist injury and was forced to have an operation on it and a pin inserted, which kept his head in the books and away from the tennis court until June 2004.
Blessed with natural pace around the court and a competitiveness that his Cal coach, former Irish Davis Cup captain, Peter Wright, says could earn him the national American collegiate singles title, Niland is hopeful of taking his game to the next level.
His hitting partner, the former sixth best player in the world and Australian Open semi-finalist Wayne Ferreira, has also given Niland incomparable technical advice.
The South African player is currently a volunteer assistant at Cal, having retired from the ATP circuit a couple of years ago. "He's been a big help to me," says Niland.
Futures bright at Brookfield
With all of Ireland's professional players looking forward to the summer and the run of three events in Dublin in which there will be world ranking points and cash available, it falls to Brookfield Tennis Club in Palmerston Park, Dartry, to host the €15,000 Futures tournament on June 24th.
Tournament director and honorary secretary of the club James Brewster will bring his years of experience with Tennis Ireland to bear on the event, which is the middle part of the trilogy series. Sandwiched between a Futures event in Limerick on June 17th and the €50,000 Challenger event in Fitzwilliam at the beginning of July, it is by some way the biggest event the club has ever hosted.
With around 300 senior members and 200 junior members, who play on six artificial courts, the event is also likely to be well supported. Brookfield, as part of their centenary celebrations this year, are also hosting local tennis events and national competitions.
