Niland sickness ends in US heartache

CONOR NILAND’S US Open dream ended in misery last night after he was forced out of the tournament by food poisoning, conceding his first round clash with world number one Novak Djokovic.

The Limerick player had been feeling ill for the last two days after succumbing to a bout of food poisoning in the early hours of Monday morning and he was tended to by a doctor as he struggled through almost two sets of dominant play from the Wimbledon champion.

With 13 unforced errors in the first set, Niland’s struggles rendered the impressive Serb’s task all the easier as his 81% success rate from the first serve pushed him towards a brisk 20-minute 6-0.

While Niland took his first game on serve at the start of the second set to make it 1-1, the sight of his doctor and trainer did not bode well and he took the decision to retire with Djokovic leading 5-1 in the second set, having won 16 points in a row.

“It’s just really really bad timing,” Niland said after the match.

“The doctor told me that if I wasn’t able to keep my liquids down, he was going to call (the match) on my behalf. It didn’t get to that but (starting the match) was something I really wanted to do, just get out there and maybe if there was a miracle, I’d do okay.

“But you can’t be feeling like that and play normally. I wasn’t able to eat for the last two days so I just had nothing in my legs energy-wise. It was an impossible task.

“It was great to qualify and I got a lot out of it, even today being as it was. It’s been a great week and a half. Obviously the timing of it has been pretty cruel. To go so long without any sort of food poisoning and then to get it two days before the biggest match of my career, it feels a bit weird.

“That’s just what happens and I’ll have to deal with it.”

Djokovic, who had himself been forced to shake off a shoulder injury in the run-up to the tournament, sympathised with Niland.

“It’s really unfortunate, you never like to see your opponent retire. He told me after the match he had food poisoning. But it was really important for me to start strong. I think I played really well for the 45 minutes we were on the court.

“The shoulder is feeling fine. I didn’t feel any discomfort.”

Meanwhile, Ireland’s number two, Louk Sorensen, will take on sixth-seeded Swede Robin Söderling later today.

Sorenson, who won a Grand Slam match at the 2010 Australian Open and temporarily retired from the sport earlier this year, will be on court at the Grandstand at 4pm Irish time for his first ever appearance at the US Open.

His illustrious opponent, Söderling, reached successive French Open finals in 2009 and 2010 but was knocked out by Rafael Nadal in Paris this year at the quarter-final stage. Stomach problems forced him out of Wimbledon at the third round stage.

He also missed out on the warm-up events in North America due to a wrist injury, withdrawing from the back-to-back hard court Masters tournaments in Montreal and Cincinnati.

Meanwhile, Caroline Wozniacki last night set off on the path she hopes will lead to a first Grand Slam title at the US Open — and give her bragging rights over boyfriend Rory McIlroy.

The Northern Irishman won his first golf major at the equivalent tournament earlier this year but, unlike Wozniacki, he has yet to top the world rankings.

The Dane was impressive in a 6-3 6-1 victory over Spain’s Nuria Llagostera Vives, and she said of her friendly rivalry with McIlroy: “I’m definitely trying to keep up.

“I’ll definitely do my best, but I still have six tough matches to go, so it will not be easy. He has something I’m looking for and I have something he’s looking for. He wants to be number one. So it’s good to have something on each other.”