The fact that Alejandro Falla proceeded to beat the eighth seed, Croatia’s Roko Karanusic, (6-2, 6-2) to qualify for the US Open will provide Conor Niland with little consolation this week.
Niland had been buoyed by a stunning win over Australia’s Joseph Sirianni in the first qualifying round.
On Tuesday evening last Niland saw off the challenge of Sirianni (6-0, 6-4) - the victory represented the Irish tennis star’s first win in a Grand Slam.
Niland performed brilliantly against Sirianni who is currently ranked 240th in the world, but was once ranked as high as 138th.
Niland never once faced a break point during the match which the Limerick man won in just 57 minutes.
And, the Irish number one was thrilled to win four of his six break points while Niland’s service game was excellent throughout that one-sided contest.
The quality of Niland’s first serve proved the foundation for the Limerick man’s win over Sirianni, but Alejando Falla returned in outstanding fashion to stifle the determined Niland at Flushing Meadows on Thursday afternoon.
The South American succeeded in breaking the Limerick man’s serve twice in the first set and on three occasions in the second. Conor Niland bravely saved a set point on Falla’s serve in the first set, but the Colombian made no mistake at the second attempt to wrap up the opener in 32 minutes. The downward trend continued for Niland in the second set when he dropped his serve in the opening game.
And although he held his serve in the third game, Falla reeled off the next four on the trot.
The 28-year-old Limerick man, who has won four ITF Futures titles and one Challenger Tour event (New Delhi, 2008), will now concentrate on progressing up the ATP rankings for the remainder of the season and build upon the form which saw Conor Niland compete in the quarter-finals of the clay-court ATP Tour Challenger tournament in Saransk, Russia recently.
BRIAN MCDONNELL
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