07 Apr Niland successful on Day 1 in Baton Rouge
Conor Niland opened his account at the Price Leblanc Lexus Pro Tennis Classic in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in spectacular fashion this afternoon (7th April) with an excellent win over Canadian Frank Dancevic. Niland was given a tough opener in the first round against the Canadian currently ranked 111 in the world. Fresh from competing at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 in Miami the previous week (where he was eventually dumped out by Novak Djokovic) Dancevic was widely tipped to progress past the 26 year old Limerick native.
The Irish Davis Cup star was unwilling to follow the script however and after a slow start to the match where Dancevic took the first set 6-3. Undeterred, Niland fought back in the second set winning 6-3, to even the tie at one set apeice. Niland went into the deciding set brimming with confidence and comfortably taking the third set 6-1 with a solid display of tennis.
With the 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 win Niland progresses into the 2nd Round of the $50,000 ATP event and will face Serbian qualifier Vladimir Obradivic today at 11am (Standard Central Time USA).
For more information on the ATP Challenger event at Baton Rouge go to www.brprotennisclassic.com