Conor Niland: Making my peace with wins and losses

The Irish tennis star talks about the challenging road to competing with the elite, his Wimbledon appearance in 2011, and his early retirement the following year

Conor Niland serves during his first-round match against Adrian Mannarino of France on Day Two of Wimbledon 2011. Picture: Getty

Making a career out of tennis is tough. There’s no doubt about that.

It began for me from the time I could walk. I always had a racquet in my hand and tennis was all around me. I was the youngest of four children who all played, and my mother also played. We lived in England for a few years, so I was born in Birmingham and our house was across the road from a ...