Interview | Conor Niland on 'The Racket'

From Bolletieri's to Berkeley and eventually Wimbledon, Ireland's greatest player talks to me about his new memoir

By Stephen Higgins | 3rd September 2024

It is 14 years since Conor Niland ascended to no.129 in the ATP rankings, which remains the ceiling for any Irish player in the Open Era.

It's also 13 years to the very fortnight when he faced Novak Djokovic at Flushing Meadows. That day, he was undone by a potent combination of food poisoning and a fairly handy opponent.

Those achievements and many more rich tales illuminate Niland's new memoir 'The Racket: On Tour with Tennis’s Golden Generation – and the other 99%'.

It is a brilliant, honest read and a very enjoyable audiobook should you be so inclined. Last week, I spoke to Conor about some of the moments and points that struck me in the book.

For the first time on Crosscourt View, you can choose to listen to my conversation with Conor Niland by clicking on the audio player here, or read the article below. Just to note that the text has been lightly edited for legibility.

Hope you enjoy and thanks to Conor for giving his time.

Listen to Interview

Crosscourt View: I was astounded by the detail that you had, did you keep a journal or how were you able to piece it all together?

Conor Niland: I didn't really keep a journal, no...I think what really helped was going through the ITF website and my list of tournaments and being able to go back through every match I played basically.

Obviously I was never going to give a blow by blow account of my results or my career, but I was able just to understand and organise my career and my thoughts better with that. And then there were always going to be certain incidents and highlights that I was going to be talking about.

I tried to focus a little bit more on the tougher moments I guess, and the moments where I came across some of the bigger names. I then tried to arrange the story and my career around that, giving enough information without boring people saying “and then I won my quarter-final 6-3 6-4.”

So it needed to be pretty light on getting into the very finer details of when I won and where. Essentially, I used a lot of memories but the ITF website helped me sort of organise and understand exactly where I was, because sometimes you'd think you were in a certain place and then you realise, actually, that was six months after something else. It was a bit of a process.

You mention early on in the book how you were born into a tennis family. Obviously, the Nilands are a famous family in Ireland for tennis. You say you first considered quitting at ten, and I was just wondering, would you have regretted doing so then, or is that a complex question?

[Laughs] Yeah, I would regret it. It's very easy for me to sort of look back and say "oh, it was tough and should I have done it?"" But obviously it's given me loads of interesting experiences.

[It’s] obviously very easy now to look back and say I could have done certain things differently and better…But yeah, I think ultimately I'm happy that I chose tennis or it chose me in a funny way and we’ve had this complex relationship.

But it's still bringing me on an interesting journey and I'm still sort of on that journey now again with this book. So it’s been kind of fun in a slightly perverse way.

When you were training as a kid, you say that you were instructed that dropshots were outlawed as too risky and things were based around consistency and margin for error. I was just wondering, is that the right approach when you're developing as a player, or do you think it depends on the individual?

Yeah, it's a good question. Obviously I suffered a little bit from a lack of variety. I suppose I could have certainly done with that, but I never focused on it and I could have probably brought that into my career at a later date. So I think it's not a bad place to start to give yourself that solidity.

Ultimately, being a pro tennis player is about being super solid. You obviously need your weapons as well and a bit of variety. But again, like I talked about in the book, I brought a slice in to my game in my mid to late 20s. So I think those things can be added. So I think it was probably a pretty good strategy, if maybe a little bit unnecessarily strict or restricted, should I say.

It's actually interesting. That makes me think of, because Andre Agassi is kind of a theme throughout the book and he was my favourite player growing up, I think I’m right in saying that he brought in a slice quite late in his career as well. He would have always just used a two-hander, but he kind of brought that in for a bit of variety as well in rallies?

Yeah, and the drop shot too and you see Djokovic as well. It doesn't look like the most natural drop shot, but he's got a brilliant drop shot that he's kind of built into his career over the years. So I think it is something that you can train and bring in.

I suppose we're all - at very different levels - a similar type of game style the three of us in terms of being good returners and predominantly ground-strokers. Obviously they take it to another level again.

But yeah, it is interesting to think maybe you can bring those things in a little bit later. Andy Murray was sort of drop shots first and then built in the solidity…apparently!

There’s almost a sad line when you say in the book around the age of 12 that your mindset changed from hoping you could win Wimbledon someday, to just compete at it. How did you know your limitations that young or how did your mind go to that level?

I guess going to that Les Petits As tournament in France at 12. I was a year young in hindsight and was probably even small for my year as an under 13, but playing in under 14 events. I think maybe I was a little bit young to go to that tournament because it shocked me a bit in terms of how far along some of the very top guys looked. I felt like there was that gulf there.

We probably don't give kids enough credit in terms of how they pick up on those things. I think we probably think kids don't know what's going on at 11, 12, 13 in terms of their own level. But I actually think they're always assessing and assessing in a reasonably sophisticated way where they are.

So I think I just sort of said “gee, I know I'm good, you know, but looks like maybe I'm not quite at that level.” I obviously had some of that experience in going to the UK. I suppose the number one in the UK at that time was also pretty much the number one in Europe (Simon Dixon) so I was able to see the very best and I just knew I wasn't quite at that level.

What was it that you saw at those junior events that made you think that? Was it everything, was it specific things?

Yeah, that's a good question again…they looked like mini pros. They just looked like slightly smaller professionals. Obviously less power and the serve is probably the big one. But it just looked like they had fully organised games. They didn't look like they needed a whole pile of work. They were hitting the ball with perfect technique, and doing a lot of things right .

Justine Henin was one of those. Olivier Rochus and I think Nicolas Mahut was one of them as well. It just looked like they were ready to get to that place. They just needed to get that growth spurt and grow up. It just didn't look like there was anything drastic they needed to go to the next level.

You mentioned the famed Nick Bolletieri Academy earlier. It’s impossible to know, but when you went for your training camp and were asked to go back the following fall and you didn’t go, do you wonder what might have happened to you and your game if you had gone back?

Yeah, I do. I think it was maybe the pivotal decision in my tennis career and tennis life probably - that decision to go back and take the safe option and go back to Millfield in England and back to Ireland ultimately.

I did pretty well actually my next two years in England and that trip to Bolletieri’s was quite inspiring. But like, if I think about it, in the space of two weeks I played with Andy Roddick, Petr Korda, Serena Williams, Venus Williams and a lady called Sandra Cacic, who I think was about 30 in the world and I don't think she even made it into the book.

I didn't get access to those players for another ten years almost. You know, in terms of hitting with the very best in the world. And that was only because I got to play in those tournaments with them.

So I think just that access to the very top from, obviously a playing perspective, but also just from a belief perspective and being around those people would have made a huge impact.

It's hard to think that wouldn't have helped me get better sooner at least.

Would you say it’s anything to do with the Irish mentality because we didn ’t really have a heritage of producing high level players. But compared to say, if you were from the Czech Republic, where they churn out players every year and there’s that system and mentality, that might influence those decisions?

Ultimately it was me and my parents who were kind of making that decision in isolation. I think if I'd come from a country with a tennis heritage, there would have been three or four guys there who we would have known, who were older than us, who would have said, you should go there. Basically what I just said to you about access to players, they would have probably said.

It was probably the lack of advice as opposed to a belief or mentality thing. It was probably a bit more practical than that. But yeah, I think that does feed into it. The mentality of, well, you know, I'm going to go back to a nice school and get a nice set of A-levels and go to a nice university because that's what we do in Ireland. So yeah, wasn't quite ready to make that leap I guess.

Actually speaking of college, you made a really interesting point in the book about choosing to take the college route. It was almost a bit of a concession from a player that they weren’t good enough yet to go pro if you chose that route. Could you talk about that?

Yeah, I think that's that's the case. I think if you're going pro at 16 to 18 - some people do it and they have no business doing that - but I think it shows that you've either had the results at junior level and you’re top five, top ten, top 15 in the world under 18 and you think you can make a really good go at it.

Potentially, you've got the supports there to help you with the transition or you just sort of don't quite know what you're doing and where your place in the tennis world is and college is a good, safe place to go and figure that out. You're going to get your hours, or more or less your hours and your opportunities to prove yourself. But there's this huge safety net of American University. I just think it's a safe play.

I don't think anyone who's got real ambitions of winning a Grand Slam decides I'm going to go full tilt from the age of 12 to 18 and then I'm going to go to college in the States.

It sort of happens by accident that a John Isner or Kevin Anderson, who probably grew to six foot ten between the ages of 17 and 19, while they're making that transition, and then come out of college and they're serving 20 aces a match and they go on to become top ten because of how tall they are. So it's a little bit of that.

You had great success in the NCAA before you went pro. There’s an astonishing number of chapters where you talk about life on the ITF Tour, transitioning from Berkeley into travelling across the world. I was wondering how you managed the emotions of travelling to these far flung places where you might be there for a week, or you might have to book a flight back the next day?

It was tough to manage that. You're just not sure what you're facing in to. Am I going to have a great week or is it going to be an early exit? It got expensive as well from a practical point of view in terms of having to book flights late and maybe stay on in hotels extra nights.

The whole thing was just difficult to plan and organise and if you do lose on a Monday or a Tuesday somewhere, you've got that question of “do I sneak back home for five or six days and come back out?” or “do I wait it out and try and practise here?” “Will that make me jaded for next week or very alert?”

There was just this constant sort of worry, I suppose, about whether you're doing the right thing and getting it right week to week. It was probably the most challenging part.

I would love to see pro tennis tournaments maybe condensed a bit like you see in the golf. There's two days and you make the cut or you don't, and then there's another two days. So it's never more than four days and you know you've got a reasonable chance that It's going to be two days.

I think it's condensed that little bit more. Whereas [in] tennis, you might have to turn up on the Saturday because you might be playing on the Monday morning. Then you could be there flying out the Monday the following week. You'd be there in ten days so it's a big swing.

I presume you’d probably favour a more regional format to cut down on the spending and climate concerns?

Yeah, and to be honest in hindsight, I think you can control that a little bit yourself. Certainly at the Futures level, if I was to do it all again I'd maybe limit my Futures circuit to two or three places. Two or three countries or even one country, ideally have a training base in Spain or Italy and just play a Futures run there for a year or two and just cut down on all the messing.

At the challenger level, it gets more difficult because the swing kind of follows the Grand Slams a bit. But yeah, I think a reasonable tour would create more prize-money opportunities as well.

Again, going back to the golf, there's a European tour, a PGA tour and not to mention LIV. There's playing opportunities and prize money opportunities spread across the world as opposed to everybody just trying to go for this one ATP tour. Everybody's competing for that and that alone.

Just on the topic of travelling around the ITF Tour, when you mention later in the book about travelling with Síne [his wife] to Doha, where you find out that you just missed the draw and were afraid to tell her for half a day, did that feel like revealing this insane world to someone who isn’t in the bubble?

Yeah, she was a great, I suppose, set of fresh eyes on the tour actually. [She] didn't come with any preconceptions at all. It was a bit unlucky I didn't get into Doha, it was particularly strong. Seeing her perspective was really interesting.

That scene where we've gone from the US Open and all that - my kind of career highlight - to then the challenger in Germany where there’s a garage service station where you’re going to get your snacks after dinner. She sort of says “Oh this is what it’s really like!”. It sort of dawned on her then.

If we talk about the hip injury at Banja Luka, there’s a tragedy to how you describe that’s really well done in the book and how it affected your trajectory and your expectations going forward with your career. Injuries are so part and parcel of the game if you think of someone like Juan Martin del Potro or Dominic Thiem. Do they get overlooked because of the astonishing fitness records of people like Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer?

Yeah, I think so. I think what was so tough about the Banja Luka one for me was that it was this slip on a wet clay court that I didn't need to be playing on. So, it wasn't as much of a wear and tear [injury].

Now, it transpired I had some issues that were probably coming down the tracks with it or with my hips anyway, but yeah, I obviously talk about in the book that injuries are often priced into a career high.

Already Alcaraz, aside from obviously him losing last night, he's already able to kind of pick and choose tournaments and doesn't need to be doing any ATP 250s or even ATP 500s and is able just to do the Grand Slam swings and that makes such a big difference to your body.

He's able to taper and prime himself for every event, and not to mention the doctor and the physio and the corner after the match. Whereas, I was literally getting back on a train the day after Banja Luka, carrying my own bags and trying to figure out what was wrong with me, maybe three or four or five days later after getting an appointment. Whereas, he's straight on everything. So all that stuff accumulates.

You talk about the famous Wimbledon match with Adrian Mannarino and how that has lingered with you since. Can you take any solace from how brilliant a player he has become, or is it still a case that you feel you could have beaten him on that day?

Listen, what he’s done post-career maybe hasn't surprised me as much as a lot of other people. It’s maybe surprised me a little bit how long he’s gone, and that he’s snuck top 20.

But I knew he was a really solid 30, 40, 50 in the world type player because he's just ridiculously solid. But my game was quite well matched up to somebody who gave me a bit of time. I was also, very, very solid if I had time, and certainly at that time in my career.

It's nice that he's still playing actually, it still gives a bit of context for the stories in the book as well that you can still see him out there. It's been good that he wasn't somebody who sort of maybe crashed and burned in the top 100 for a few years and is gone [chuckles].

It’s nice that he's stuck around and in fairness, gone from strength to strength. It's incredible in terms of his longevity and the fact that he’s at a career high now. But if you told me then that Mannarino would end up being 22 in the world, I wouldn't have been surprised. Although I think maybe a few people who were watching the match may have been.

A lot of people said ‘you played the match of your life’ and I don't think I did. Again, that's the nature of the Challenger T our is that you're playing top 50 to top 75 tennis quite a lot, but it's just hard to get to that ranking.

On a personal note, it’s interesting in the book how you almost judge your place in tennis by your relationship with Roger Federer. If you get to play him, or at the end of the book, will he give you a nod when you run into him in the players’ lounge? I think it’s fascinating in tennis how people judge their place on whether they came across the orbit of Federer, Nadal or Serena.

That was the first question I was asked at the time of my playing career, and it’s still the question now. It is so important because people just don't understand the ranking system in tennis and what it means.

So what they ask you is a shorthand for understanding your level: ‘Did you play anyone I’d know?’ I even had that little bit in the book where I say ‘I played Dudi Sela’ to my friends in the pub, knowing that they had no idea who he was.

I suppose you can say you played Wimbledon and that gives it one context. But then to have that I played Djokovic sort of underpins that. That was so important for context. It's sort of the shorthand for people. It's like saying, [if you’re a soccer player] did you play in the Championship or the Premier League? I don't want to hear all the nitty gritty about it. Just give me the shorthand!

In the book, understandably you mention superstars like Roger Federer, Andy Murray, Serena Williams and your interactions with them. I was wondering if there are other players that are lesser known that really impressed you, that you encountered or played against, or you feel haven’t got the appropriate praise?

I didn't mention, I don't think, in the book that I played Marcos Baghdatis who was a real talent. I was reasonably competitive with him actually, but he was a really good player.

In terms of guys maybe who were a little bit underrated? Yeah, that's a good one. I suppose a guy like Kevin Anderson, but again he did make a Wimbledon final!

But I remember looking at him and going ‘wow, this guy's groundstrokes are so solid'. I remember the first time I saw him at a college event and he was about three or four courts down. I know that's a common theme because it was the same with Simon Dixon when I first saw him. But I think, when you're a tennis player, you know someone impresses you when you've noticed them three or four courts away.

It was at a pre-season college event in Puerto Rico actually. I remember looking down the courts at this lad who looked like the ball was nearly bouncing out of the court on his first serve, he moved really well and his groundstrokes were as grooved and the technique was as nice as anyone else's.

He just looked like a top, top class player. Then I got closer to him and realised he felt about two feet taller than me as well and just looked like an absolute handful. He was a relatively unheralded college player at the time but went on to be top eight in the world and a final at Wimbledon. He was quite under the radar but very, very impressive.

When you look back at your career now, how do you feel about things or does it shift depending on your mood or your thoughts?

Yeah, that's a good question. Does it shift at all? Yeah, it probably does a little bit. You can tell I've a fairly good handle on what I did, when I did it, what it means and the context.

A good few people have said, you're a little bit harsh on yourself in the book, in terms of what you achieved. But listen, I'm sort of baking in the fact that I was playing in a global sport but that ultimately, when somebody reads this, they're going to say he didn't quite make it.

I think for a lot of people, making it ultimately is being on television regularly - I think that's people's shorthand. I think I'm fairly comfortable with what I did. I've said it before in interviews [that] I don't think I fulfilled my potential but I don't think I could have done a whole lot more, coming out of Limerick in the 80s and early 90s.

I was always going to be up against it to play Wimbledon and so listen, I did okay.