Niland crashes out of Aussie qualifying

THE experience of American veteran Kevin Kim proved the deciding factor as Conor Niland disappointingly crashed out in the first round of qualifying for the Australian Open yesterday.

The Irish No. 1, seeded 16th and ranked 130th in the world went down to his 32-year-old opponent, currently at number 262 in the world.

The California right-hander has played in the main draw of the Australian Open on three occasions, reaching the third round in 2005, and the fourth round of the French Open in the same year.

And after two hours and one minute, Kim was able to look forward to a second round clash with Slovakia’s Andrej Martin after posting a 7-6 (7/5) 7-6 (8/6) win over the Limerick native.

Niland’s early exit was additionally disappointing in view of the fact that he won two matches at the corresponding stage in last year’s event, and he was then ranked at 285th.

Neither player managed to break his opponent’s serve, Kim failing to avail of 10 break-point opportunities, with Niland setting up four similar fruitless openings. But crucially the American displayed the greater resolve and cooler nerve in each of the tie-breaks.

Niland edged Kim in first serve percentage figures – 55 to 54. But Kim had a winning first serve percentage of 83 as against 72, and a winning receiving points percentage of 34 compared to 26.

Meanwhile, Irish duo Sam Barry and Barry King yesterday came up short in the ITF Men’s Futures event in Glasgow.

Barry suffered a 6-3 6-4 defeat by No 5 seed Jamie Baker while King bowed out against world No. 513 Alexander Slabinisy on a similar 6-3 6-4 margin.