The 27-year-old won both of his singles matches to book Ireland a place against Cyprus in the second round of Group II Euro/Africa Zone qualifying series.
Niland has been a mainstay on the Irish Davis Cup team since he made his debut in July 2000 against Croatia at Fitzwilliam - he has made over 20 appearances under the Irish banner since then.
Yesterday, Niland earned the crucial win of the second round when he beat the Algerian number one Eddy Chala 7-6, 6-2, 6-2 in the first of the reverse singles match.
In the end Niland beat Chala with ease, claiming the first set yesterday morning 7-6 before going on to dominate the second and third, restricting the lower-ranked player to just four games in the 6-2, 6-2 win.
“It was very important to win the first set, as I was very confident he wouldn’t beat me in either four or five sets,” said a delighted Conor Niland.
“He played really well in the first set.
“He was hitting the lines with a lot of his shots and was hitting two to three winners a game. But I probably was not doing enough with the ball in the first set and I decided to take the ball earlier from the second set onwards.
“I also felt he couldn’t continue at his first level for the whole of the match.”
Niland headed into the contest against Eddy Chala as a red-hot favourite, with the Irish number one holding an ATP singles world ranking of 279 compared to 1266 for his Paris-born Algerian counterpart.
And Chala, a former French international underage international, went about his business so effectively and confidently in the opening set that it suggested he could pull off a shock victory and level the tie at 2-2. With two service breaks to Niland’s one, the home player put himself in a position to serve for the first set at 5-4, but his opponent broke back to level at 5-5.
The next two games went with serve, and the decibel level from the partisan crowd rose appreciably with the onset of the tie-break. Chala continued to play out of his skin and Niland found himself on the brink of losing the set five times.
But the Irish player showed tremendous resolve and character, and silenced the home fans when a penetrative backhand volley forced a netted forehand off Chala to enable him to take the tie-break by a 13-11 margin. Niland went on to clinch victory on a 7-6 (13/11), 6-2, 6-1 margin after two hours and 16 minutes.
Niland had got Ireland off to a satisfactory start on Friday when ending the first day’s play level, 1-1, when he defeated the home side’s number two player, Slimane Saoudi, in straight sets, 6-3, 6-1, 6-2 following a short rain delay.
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