Niland off to Russia in New York state of mind

TENNIS:TODAY CONOR Niland will have been in the Russian Embassy for the third time this week seeking a visa. Life on the tennis road isn't all about breaking serve and racking up ATP points. Over the weekend he will travel to Penza, Russia, before hitting Kazakhstan as he seeks to move his ranking towards 100 and ultimately qualify for the US Open in New York at the end of August.

The €35,000 Challenger will be the Limerick player’s first ATP tournament since Wimbledon and also means he will not be in Dublin for the Green Property Irish Open, a €10,000 Futures event which begins in Fitzwilliam on Monday.

The Davis Cup last weekend in Riverview gave Niland two good singles matches as well as a rare foray into doubles and he is eager to build on the Wimbledon experience. It is back to the day job.

“Back to reality a little bit,” he says.

The tournament in Kazakhstan is a €88,000 event which makes it one of the biggest available. While Niland would like to support the Irish Open the bigger events are potentially too lucrative to miss.

They will also give him some time on hard courts, the surface for the US Open.

“Obviously if I get a good run in one of them I’ll be inside 150 (in the world) again,” he says. “It will be nice to start the push for the rest of the summer straight away over there.

“There will be another Challenger or two in Europe after those, maybe one in Spain. Then I might do qualifying in Cincinnati for the Masters Series and then go to New York. For the last couple of years I’ve just gone from Europe to New York so I’d like to get a week in the States.”

Niland had a virus and a hip injury at the start of the year, which is now being successfully managed. But the season turns away from grass and on to his favourite hard court surface. It’s a much truer surface than grass or clay and one that suits his game.

“Hard court is my best surface,” he says. “It still is. I’d a really good grass season, which was funny. For the last couple of years I hadn’t played a grass court event before Wimbledon and this year I got two really good tournaments with a lot of matches in Nottingham and Queen’s. It worked out well. But hard court is such a true surface and I’ve good ground strokes, so I can construct points a little bit easier.”

Niland has also reviewed his overall strategy and will try to get to the end point of games a little more quickly than he has been doing. Apart from putting more pressure on opponents, it will in the long run save his body, especially if the five-set US Open becomes a reality. Even to win a Challenger is five matches in a row over three sets.

“I’m trying to be a bit more aggressive,” he says. “Quicker points, getting cheap points off my first serves is what I’ve been focused on.

“It’s tough to grind guys down five matches in a row to win a tournament so that’s what I’ve been doing.”