TENNIS: JOHNNY WATTERSONtalks to Ireland Davis Cup coach Gary Cahill about Conor Niland's chances of putting an Irish name in the Wimbledon men's singles draw today for the first time since Matt Doyle in 1984

ANDY MURRAY’S reference to Conor Niland as having a great attitude is far from misplaced as the Irish number one faces into the biggest match of his career today in London.

Niland, who has been on the professional circuit since he left college in Berkeley, California, in 2005, has risen from around 500 in the world to his current ranking of 186 and today is on the cusp of putting an Irish name in the Wimbledon men’s singles draw for the first time since Matt Doyle beat American Alexander Meyer in five sets to make the second round 1984.

Niland, from Limerick, has been beating at the door of Grand Slams but has never been able to open any in the way Louk Sorensen did last year at the Australian Open, where he made it to the second round.

Sorensen’s premature retirement through injury leaves Niland as the lone Irish player capable of making the breakthrough. Now in the last round of the qualifying tournament in Roehampton, Niland meets Croatian Nikola Mektic, a 274-ranked 23-year-old, who is playing for the first time in the event.

The winner of the five-set match gains entry to the main draw, which begins on Monday.

In the previous round Niland illustrated just how well he can scrap and produced one of the fight-backs of the day against Australian Greg Jones, winning 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 to bring him closer than he has ever been to Grand Slam entry.

“Conor’s in good shape. The injury and the flu earlier this year was a set back and when those things happen they can affect confidence too,” said Irish Davis Cup captain Gary Cahill. Cahill is in London with Niland.

“This year he has been playing particularly well on grass. It’s a big match, a great opportunity. He is good enough to play in the main draw in a Grand Slam. He’s better than a lot of players who have and he’s got a great shot.”

Not much is known about Mektic except he is a natural baseline player. Not great for grass but the surface has slowed in recent years and is no longer seen as a big handicap.

“I watched him (Mektic) a little over the last few days. He was playing beside Conor in one of the matches,” added Cahill. “I didn’t expect him to come through but he has won two good matches to get this far. He is a baseliner but the grass is slow.”

Irish-based Vitalia Diatchenko joined Niland in the final qualifying round, coming through a tough battle 6-3, 6-3 against the seventh seed Maria Elena Camerin of Italy. Recovering from 0-2 in the second set the Russian, who is also coached by Cahill, won four straight games before serving out the match.

Diatchenko, who prepared at Elm Park, Glasnevin LTC and the Tennis Ireland BNP-Paribas Academy in DCU, will now face 23rd-seed Stephanie Dubois of Canada for a place in the main draw.

Meanwhile, Tennis Ireland (TI) have launched a marketing toolkit to address the fall in participation rates. Like most sports, tennis has suffered a decline caused by economic difficulties. The impact was first seen last year with an estimated eight per cent drop off in participation rates. Approximately 80,000 people in Ireland play in 200 affiliated clubs.

Tennis Ireland staged a marketing forum in Malahide in May with one of the recommendations that clubs stage “open days” to attract members during the middle weekend of Wimbledon (June 25th-26th).

Up to 20 leading clubs now have plans to stage open days that weekend and expectations are the sport will this year recover the losses of 2010.

MUrray tweets for Niland

WORLD number four Andy Murray was sarcastic when asked why Wimbledon left out his regular hitting partner Ireland’s Conor Niland. Niland, who has been the highest-ranked player in these islands after the Scot, was left out of the Wimbledon wild-card allocation.

British players Daniel Cox ranked 272 and Daniel Evans ranked 305 were given first-round places by the All England Club committee. Niland was as high as 130 in the world earlier this year but following illness and injury has fallen to 184. “I thought it was 250 cut-off for wild cards or has that changed?” Murray tweeted. “Conor Niland deserves one – great attitude.”