Wimbledon dreamers should start early and stay focused, says former pro Niland  

[July 12, 2024]  By Philip O'Connor

(Reuters) - This weekend Wimbledon will crown its new champions and inspire youngsters to pick up a racket for the first time, and though the journey to success gets harder by the year, former pro Conor Niland reckons it's worth the sacrifice.

Irishman Niland was once one of those wide-eyed youths that chased that dream and actually make it to the grass courts of SW19. In his recently-published memoir "The Racket" he outlines the lengths he had to go to to make it come true.

"It's the ultimate, and it's always one that you dream about - all four Grand Slams are big, but there's something extra special about Wimbledon," he told Reuters in a telephone interview.

Spots in the singles competitions at Wimbledon are like gold dust - 128 players make it across the men's and women's draw, with the top players guaranteed a spot and the rest slugging it out for months on end just for the privilege of competing in the qualifiers.

Niland made the qualifiers five years in a row starting in 2008, and his lone appearance at the tournament proper came in 2011, with the now-retired 42-year-old describing it as the culmination of a 20-year journey in the sport.

"I was playing between 30 and 40 professional events a year in far-flung places, trying to get my ranking inside the top 250. I was in inside the top 200 for a few years," he explained.

"My first Grand Slam appearance was at the big one, Wimbledon, which was great, and then the US Open a few months later."

Those two Grand Slam appearances were the exception in Niland's career, which was mostly spent competing at Futures and Challenger events - far less glamorous stages, with the same cut-throat competition but paltry prize money compared to the big tournaments.

"When I qualified for Wimbledon it was a really deeply satisfying feeling, you actually just feel very content, and I think that was the main feeling for me that obviously lasted then for a few days," Niland said.

EARLY START

His Wimbledon dream lasted one match, losing a four-set marathon to Frenchman Adrian Mannarino, who went on to lose in straight sets in the next round to eight-time champion Roger Federer - a player Niland had beaten at the age of 12.

That junior victory over the developing Federer might be a feather in his cap, but Niland says that the key to tennis success is to start as early as possible and to put the hours in on the court.

"There's almost nobody inside the top 100 who didn't take up the game at eight or nine - it's usually four or five, and those years between the ages of 12 and 16 I think are really important," he said.

"To be getting the number of tournaments in and the training required, it's not full-time, but it's a massive priority in your life ... these kids at the at the top level in Europe and the world are 13 or 14, travelling around to between 10 and 20 tournaments a year, so it's very intense."

Niland's book outlines the hard road many players have to take as they try to climb the rankings, and now that he can enjoy watching Wimbledon as a fan, his last piece of advice to budding players is to go all-in in their pursuit of the dream.

"Someone said to me, you can't be Albert Einstein and Roger Federer - you have to make some choices. If you really want to go and try and be an international-class tennis player, you're going to have to be very focused on it," he said.

(Reporting by Philip O'Connor; Editing by Christian Radnedge)

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