Niland one victory away from dream Federer tie

IRISH ace Conor Niland is set to face a dream clash against Roger Federer if he survives his Wimbledon debut tomorrow.

After becoming the first Irish player since Matt Doyle in 1984 to qualify for the main draw of the most prestigious of the Grand Slams, Niland (184 in the world) has been paired against France’s 53-ranked Adrian Mannarino in the first round.

The winner is almost certain to earn a second round battle against record 16-time Grand Slam championFederer, who will be odds-on to overcome Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin in his opening contest.

“It would be fantastic to play Federer, and, of course, such a match would be on the Centre Court or Court No 1,” said the 29-year-old Limerick man, who scored a 6-3 7-6 (7/5) 6-4 win over Croatia’s Nikola Mektic in the rain-delayed final round of qualifying at the Roehampton club on Saturday.

“But, of course, I cannot afford to look beyond the match against Mannarino,”

The Irish player actually holds a victory over Federer, which came when the two players crossed swords in an U14 international team event in France in 1995.

“I can’t remember the actual score, but I know that I won the match in two sets,” added Niland.

On his match against 22-year-old left-hander Mannarino, Niland said: “It’s a reasonable draw for me. It would have been very hard against a top 10 or top 20 player, but against Mannarino it’s a winnable match if I play as well as I can.

“A number of qualifiers have gone on to win a round or two at Wimbledon, so hopefully I can follow suit. I played Mannarino in a Futures (tournament) back in 2005 or 2006 in Spain, and he beat me. So hopefully I will turn the tables this time around. But I know it’s not going to be easy to make it to the second round.

“Mannarino had a very good win last week in Queen’s over (2009 US Open champion Juan Martin) Del Potro after two tie-breaks.

“He’s a left-hander which makes things more difficult with his swinging serve, he has a very good flat backhand and he has very good feet when he comes to the net.”

Understandably, the Munster man says he is overjoyed at finally having made the Grand Slam breakthrough, even if he hadn’t been handed the carrot of a meeting with the six-times Wimbledon champion.

“Despite all my previous attempts I never gave up hope that I would achieve my goal at some stage,” said Niland, who has played in 11 Grand Slam qualifying events.

“I could have made 30 unsuccessful attempts, so it’s a fantastic feeling to realise that I’ve finally done the business.”

On his match against Mektic, Niland said: “I tried to be as aggressive as possible throughout the match and that approach worked out very well for me.”