‘THE Racket’ by former Limerick tennis professional player Conor Niland has scooped the prestigious William Hill Sports Book of the Year award, and with it a prize of a cool £30,000.
Written with journalist Gavin Cooney, it charts the story of pro tennis’ 99 per cent: the players who roam the globe in hope of climbing the rankings and squeaking into the Grand Slam tournaments.
Niland, 43, attended St. Nessan’s National School in Mungret, before moving on to Crescent College Comprehensive, Dooradoyle, and thereafter embarked onto a career as an entusiastic professional in his chosen sport from 2005 to 2012.
Post-award he commented: “The perception of tennis is that people tune in for the four Grand Slams and see it all to be big cheques and strawberries and cream, but for all the guys lower down the rankings, grinding it out to make it there, it is a lot more difficult.”
He continued: “I was fortunate enough to be just outside the top 100 so I caught glimpses of the very top, but I also spent a lot of time lower down the rankings which is why I was able to show both sides of the story in this book.
“I was only able to really move on from that when I was writing the book. I used to think about my Wimbledon loss (against Adrian Mannarino in 2011) every day. That happens less and less since writing this book and I’m just over the moon with what this book turned out to be.”
Niland and his wife Síne, along with their two young children, nowadays live in Dublin.
