The 28-year-old Mungret man was serving at 4-3 up in the second set of the final qualifying round, but he failed to put away Brazilian Ricardo Hocevar. Conor Niland eventually lost 1-6, 6-4, 6-3.
Had Niland reached his first Grand Slam he would have secured a hugely attractive first round tie against home favourite Lleyton Hewitt.
The Limerick professional tennis player was in a commanding position having won the first set and held a break of serve in the second set, but his opponent dug deep to book his place in a first Grand Slam.
Ireland did get a player in the main draw of a Grand Slam for the first time since 1985 when Niland’s Davis Cup team-mate Louk Sorensen qualified for the Melbourne event.
Listed at 288 in the ATP World ranked Conor Niland had impressed enroute to the final qualifying round.
He opened in Melbourne with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Finland’s Henri Kontinen.
Niland then produced one of his best ever results when he edged the United States’ 163-ranked Jesse Witten 2-6, 6-1, 6-4.
Witten, who was seeded 28 in the qualifiers, made it to the third round of last year’s US Open and has a current career high ranking of 163 in the world.
Niland is enjoying a great start to the new season and brought good recent form to Melbourne.
In his only previous competitive outing of 2010 he went tantalisingly close to qualifying in the $1,024,000 Exxon Open, in Doha, Qatar.
Conor Niland will break from the ATP Tour in late February when he will return home to lead the Irish team in Davis Cup action against Turkey in Fitzwilliam Lawn Tennis Club from March 5-7.
Attention now turns to Limerick teenager Sam Barry, who takes part in the Australian Open Junior Championships which commence on Saturday.
JEROME O’CONNELL
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1 comments:
what a shame for conor. I think he needs to keep working damn hard and grand slam or atp tournament entry plus higher ranking will just happen. Keep pressing, Conor - just look at what Louk Sorensen did!!
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