Niland wins opener

Connor Niland made a strong start to his bid to qualify for the main draw of back-to-back grand slams at the US Open today.

The 29-year-old from Limerick eased through his opening qualifying match by beating Slovakia’s Pavol Cervenak 6-1 6-4.

Niland, ranked 199 in the world, became just the second Irishman in the Open era to reach the main draw at Wimbledon earlier this year before losing his first-round match to Adrian Mannarino in five sets.