Ireland plans to face Britain unravel

TENNIS DAVIS CUP:IRELAND KEPT up their end of the bargain in the weekend's Davis Cup at Fitzwilliam but the best laid plans by Irish tennis came tumbling down when Britain lost 3-2 to Lithuania and headed towards relegation from the Europe-African Group Two Division of the competition.

While team captain Seán Sorensen was congratulating his Irish team for a commanding 4-1 win over Turkey without his highest ranked player, the captain’s injured son Louk Sorensen, Tennis Ireland’s plans to provide a stadium court for the visit of Britain and Andy Murray were put away for another time.

Murray is currently ranked fourth in the world behind number one Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic and Rafa Nadal. Britain’s tie in Lithuania without Murray went down to the fifth and final match with 252nd-ranked James Ward losing in five sets, sending Britain backwards in the draw for a relegation match against Turkey and the successful Lithuania facing Ireland in Dublin in July.

With British tennis receiving €33.5 million a year from the vast profits of Wimbledon, don’t be surprised to see heads rolling after this result.

“We had a lot riding on it (Britain winning). We were actively looking at other venues and had been engaging with the people behind them,” said Tennis Ireland chief executive Des Allen on the possible arrival of Murray for what would have been the biggest Davis Cup event since a John McEnroe-led US team played at the RDS in 1983. “We thought that a venue with a minimum capacity of 2,500 to 3,000 was about right and we had been working on that for the last two months,” added Allen.

“We had it down to three options, the RDS, City West and our own place at DCU. We were interested to see that Andy Murray did not rule himself out of the second or third rounds.

“It’s a pity we had a big day out planned with the hope that either Louk or Conor (Niland) might qualify for either the French Open or Wimbledon and then have a big lead in to the Davis Cup event in July.

“We’re delighted about progressing and how the Irish team did this weekend but we’ll probably host Lithuania at Fitzwilliam and indoors again. The players liked the surface, obviously performed and did very, very well on it.”

Not only did Ireland have the match against Turkey wrapped up on Saturday night after winning the first two singles matches and the doubles event for a 3-0 lead but Sorensen was also able to use his less experienced players, 25-year-old Barry King and 22-year-old James McGee. McGee and King won the doubles 6-3, 6-1, 6-3 against Haluk Akkayun and Marsel Ilhan. Both King and McGee also played yesterday in the dead fourth and fifth rubbers, McGee losing out to the 125th-ranked Ilhan in straight sets 6-2, 6-4, and King winning 7-5, 3-6, 6-2 against Baris Erguden.

Niland could also look over a weekend that suggests that Grand Slam qualification for him is not a pipe dream.

Beating Ilhan in straight sets (6-3 6-2 6-1) on Saturday in what was far from a romp home sets the Limerick player, who has been on the professional circuit now for several years, on a sure course towards bigger events. Ilhan is ranked more than 100 places higher than Niland on the ATP ladder.

“I definitely feel that I’m playing better than before,” he said. “It’s the little things that I’ve worked on that have tightened things up. You understand the ups and downs better too and you can see that top 100 tennis isn’t another planet. The top five is but the top 100 is not.”

Ireland will meet Lithuania on the weekend after the Wimbledon final, July 9th-11th.