Net gains: Ireland ready to showcase progress in Davis Cup showdown

Conor Niland's side take on Austria in Limerick. 

Conor Gannon of Ireland signs an autograph for Úna Keane from Limerick during a meet and greet at the UL Sport Arena. Picture: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Ireland has played 170 Davis Cup ties across the last 92 years. That’s a wide sweep as history goes so it might seem curious to think that their World Group I playoff with Austria in Limerick this weekend will be a first hit on home soil since 2015.

There’s no single reason for it.

Nations take turns hosting ties and that has worked against the men’s team this last decade. Other meetings with new opponents necessitated travel based on nothing more than the luck of a draw, and there have been round robins at lower levels played in neutral venues.

All of which means that this will be the first chance for the Irish public to see their men’s side in action since a 5-0 loss to Belarus in Castleknock nine years ago that pushed them further down the international pyramid.

This is a chance to continue their progress back up and the public has responded.

Three thousand tickets were snapped up in jig time before Christmas. Another mini-sale was pounced on just as quickly in the New Year when the capacity at a UL Arena which is to be transformed for the occasion was stretched.

Up to 5,000 might squeeze in to the building over the two days.

That’s a significant leap in numbers, and in imagination, on Tennis Ireland’s part given the 7-800 that would have fit in to the Fitzwilliam club down the years. It’s a sign of the domestic hunger and the strength of the opposition.

Ireland captain Conor Niland agrees.

“We don’t have enough showcase events here. We have none, this is one of them. We need to bring the best players to Ireland so that the juniors and the tennis fan can come and watch and not have to go to Madrid or London.

“They feel more unreal and exist on less of a pedestal once you see them up close in some ways and that’s really important for our tennis development. A main tour event would be phenomenal if it was guaranteed every year in the calendar.”

Austria are pretty much the toughest draw Ireland could have had for this promotion playoff and, while that’s been great in terms of attracting the punters, it leaves the team with one hell of a mountain to climb if the occasion is to produce a popular ending.

Dominic Thiem once managed to make it as high as world No.3. Now just inside the top 100, he looks to be returning to some sort of form but his past deeds and name have still shunted a fair few tickets all on their own this last few months.

“To put it into perspective, Dominic Thiem is their No.2,” said Niland. “Sebastian Ofner is low thirties, he made the semis of a Tour event in Hong Kong, he beat Denis Shapovalov (career high ranking of ten) in Auckland in recent weeks.” 

Ofner will probably be a seed at some of the next three Grand Slam events this coming season and the visitors will be able to boast a doubles team ranked in the mid-30s. None of Ireland’s players come within a country mile of any of them on a wallchart.

Osgar O’hOisin is just outside the top 600 as it stands. That’s significantly better than Simon Carr, Michael Agwi, Conor Gannon and Dave O’Hare, but then tennis is full of examples where large discrepancies in standing have proven worthless on the day.

O’Hare and Gannon beat the 2022 French Open doubles champion Marcelo Arevalo and partner Lluis Miralles in the last Davis Cup tie, against El Salvador, in September and the Ireland players approach this on the back of some significant career highs.

Carr won a Futures doubles event in Germany last month, Agwi reached the singles final of the same tournament, O h’Oisin recorded a big win against a player inside the top 500 and Gannon, playing college tennis out of Memphis, was named his conference’s player of the week.

O’Hare is far better known as a coach these days and, in particular, for his work with former world No.1 doubles player Joe Salisbury, but his lack of playing time is seen as a plus by Niland who believes it allows O’Hare to prioritise weeks like this.

“We are probably managing the players and the resources a bit better than in the past. Dave O’Hare is not playing full-time tennis anymore, he is coaching, but we are bringing him back and able to get a really high level out of him even without playing regularly on the tour.

“He is almost primed for the Davis Cup every time, as opposed to back in 2015 when we had James McGee who was top 200 and Sam Barry who was top 250. Guys were so focused on their ranking and career that when Davis Cup came around they were sometimes a bit battered and bruised and almost unable to give it everything they had.” Niland himself is better prepared now.

That Belarus tie was his first as non-playing captain having succeeded Gary Cahill. He feels more assured now in what he can bring to the players and the group through the course of a week that is as big as they come for Irish tennis.

Whatever the result this weekend, this can’t be the last we see of them until 2033. The appetite for tennis is there.