‘I don’t think I fulfilled my potential’ – So close and yet so far for Ireland’s greatest tennis player

The date was June 21, 2011 and only the second Irishman to qualify for the main draw at Wimbledon in the open era of the sport after Sean Sorensen was on the brink of winning his first round match against Frenchman Adrian Mannarino, with the prize of a meeting with Federer in round two adding to the tension of the moment.

In the decisive set, Niland had two breaks of serve in his back pocket and a 4-1 lead, but he blinked with the winning line in sight and allowed Mannarino a route back into the match that he eventually lost 4-6 6-4 7-6 (9-7) 4-6 6-4.

It was an occasion that saw a rare Irish flavour added to the Wimbledon traditions, with tricolours waving and spontaneous renditions of ‘The Fields of Athenry’ briefly shattering a sporting institution that will always be the ultimate bastion of Britishness.

And therein may lie one of the reasons why Irish eyes may always look in on the annual two-week Wimbledon festival of tennis that gets under way today with a sense of detachment.

It can be challenging to embrace a sporting spectacle that celebrates dignitaries in the Royal Box as much as those on the pristine grass courts.

Yet there is something curiously compelling in the contrast of the pompousness in the stands and gritty fire on the court that draws you in, with Niland feeling that conflict will always be part of Ireland’s relationship with tennis and its greatest event.

“There is a following for tennis in Ireland, but we also have a strained relationship with the sport,” says Niland.

“I don’t know if it’s the whole Englishness, Britishness of it, that Wimbledon element. I’ve always felt there is that tension in Ireland with tennis. Maybe that is one of the reasons why we haven’t had players who have reached the top.”

By any metric, being 129th in the world in a truly global sport should be viewed as a success story, but that position merely guarantees you a place in the wilderness of tennis.

This is a sport dominated by wealthy parents who boast the financial firepower to invest in their kids from a young age with coaching and additional costs, while a handful of national federations can also back young players who show real promise.

If you are identified as a top junior player in England, the national governing body (the LTA) can hand you a £50k-a-year bursary, give you access to their sparkling National Tennis Centre and offer all the support you need to reach the top.

The £40m the LTA receive annually from the profits of Wimbledon fuels that investment and, as a result, some of the top junior players in the world right now are British.

The same young player simply wouldn’t get that opportunity if they were born in this country. Tennis Ireland don’t have a cash windfall from an event like Wimbledon to fund their endeavours. It means that tennis is not contested on a level playing field and against that backdrop, Niland should be saluted as an over-achiever.

After all, he played at Wimbledon, took on a young Novak Djokovic on Arthur Ashe Stadium at the US Open and accomplished his aim of being Ireland’s greatest tennis player. Yet as his brilliant new book The Racket candidly reveals, tennis players ranked outside the top 100 in the world are essentially sparring partners for the greats, who use them as punchbags on the practice court and rarely give them the time of day when they pass them in the locker room.

“There is a hierarchy in tennis,” he explains. “You look at the practice court issue as the big players always get the advantage. I understand why. You need Andre Agassi on the entry list for a tournament to sell the tickets and as a a result, he gets different treatment. That’s the reality of how tennis works and we get a glimpse of the hierarchy issue when it comes to booking practice courts.

“For example, I didn’t get to practise on Arthur Ashe until I played on it against Djokovic. So you are already at a disadvantage because your opponent is higher ranked and he is playing in a much more comfortable environment for him. That’s one of the reasons why these top players breeze through the opening rounds at Grand Slams because they are much more used to the environment than most of their opponents.

“To be one of the top 200 people in the world at anything is pretty good, but unfortunately, only 128 guys get to play the Grand Slams in tennis. And if you are not on that elite list, you are probably not making any money.”

As Ireland’s current Davis Cup captain, Niland’s tennis story is far from finished, but he admits he has some regrets from a career that saw him get within touching distance of the big-time and fail to clear the final few hurdles.

“How I describe my career is I don’t think I could have done a lot more and also, I don’t think I fulfilled my potential,” he states. “In a different environment, I could have done a lot better, but it could also have gone a whole lot worse.

“I think I have to take it in the round and if you told me when I was 14 or 15 I would play Grand Slams and I’d be No 129 in the world and I’m going to write a book about the whole experience, I probably would have taken it. So I’m pretty comfortable in what I’m done.

“Coming from Ireland, no one had really made it at the top of the game and that made it more difficult for me. That may explain why it took so long for me to get my levels up to the top players and why I enjoyed success later in my career.

“Someone like Roger Federer would have been in an Academy at a young age and I didn’t really go down that road, so who knows what might have happened if I took a different path.”

Niland beat Federer when they were both aspiring young players back in 1994, just four years before the Swiss youngster was crowned junior Wimbledon champion. Of course, Federer went on to win the senior title at Wimbledon a record eight times, but Niland didn’t see that potential when he beat him.

“I was only about 12 at the time when I played Federer and he didn’t really stand out,” he added. “Then I saw him winning Wimbledon for the first time and it just looked like he had jumped ten levels from the player I remember. It just shows that you can’t quite predict who is going to be extra special and who isn’t.”

Federer won 20 Grand Slam titles, amassed prize money of over $130m and ten times that again in endorsements and ongoing business ventures.

While Niland’s tennis legacy is not laced with the same clarity of diamonds as the kid he once had the beating of, being the greatest Irish tennis player of all-time is a title to toast.