Conor Niland: A life lived off broadway

When it comes to stories to tell the grandkids some day, you’re not going to trump Conor Niland.

One time he beat Federer (when they were both 12, but hey, what a line). He was one of the top three college players in all of America. He played at Wimbledon, traded shots with Djokovic at the US Open, travelled more of the world than James Bond.

Then in 2015 after a decade or more playing Davis Cup for Ireland, he was chosen to captain the team. So when you meet him here in the lavish Beacon Hotel in Sandyford, just around the corner from the property business he now works with, you could be forgiven for assuming this is the kind of spot he’d have regularly stayed in back when he was playing. In reception what appears to be a purple-dressed bed turns out to be a circular couch. Extravagant to you and me; the norm, you would think, for him. After all, his game is tennis, the most international, glamorous, sexiest individual sport of them all.