It’s every tennis player’s dream, to walk out, all in white, on the freshly trimmed grass of a Wimbledon court. For Limerick man, Conor Niland, this dream is tantalisingly close to becoming a reality. One match, against 22-year-old Croat Nikola Mektic, is all that stands between Niland and the Mecca of tennis.

Though he has for years been one of Ireland’s leading lights in tennis, Niland’s success to date has been primarily based on the Futures and Challengers circuits, with rare forays into ATP competition. At 29 years of age,  he has the experience and maturity to make the step up to grand slam level.

Niland came agonisingly close to making the main draw for the 2010 Australian Open, only to lose to Ricardo Hocevar in his final qualifying match. He has never previously progressed beyond the first qualifying match for Wimbledon but a recent surge in form has left him on the brink of becoming the first Irish player to compete in the tournament in the open era.

Victories over France’s Josselin Ouanna and Australian Greg Jones in the opening two qualifying matches have presented Niland with this golden opportunity and Des Allen, chief executive of Tennis Ireland, is cautiously optimistic about his chances of progressing.

 “Conor is currently ranked around 180 in the world,” he said. “Six months ago he was about 120 but he had a bad spring with illness and injury so he’s probably only really coming around now. He’s had a couple of decent weeks, he’s been winning matches for the last five or six weeks and he’s now just a match away.

“He’ll play the third qualifying match against a Croatian player who’s about 60 places further down the world rankings. One significant thing about this match is that it’s going to be the best of five sets, the first two rounds were best of three sets. Conor has a long, long CV in Davis Cups, which is international five set tennis. He has that advantage because his opponent as far as we know has not played Davis Cup. So we are hopeful. He has put himself in a great place and he has a match which is certainly very winnable and I think he’s very confident he can do the business.

“He’s been in this position once or twice before at grand slams, not at Wimbledon but his experience is good in this sense. He’s been in these pressure matches before, hopefully this time he can just push over the line.

“Most impartial observers would have Conor as the favourite for the game. Another factor that’s probably in his favour is that a Croatian player by definition wouldn’t see grass all that much, they play more hard court and clay court due to the climate. Conor, by contrast, played a challenger in Nottingham on grass, he played the qualifying of Queens last week and this week he’s had a couple more games on grass under his belt. I don’t think his opponent has had quite the same preparation.”

While this match holds obvious importance for Niland and his followers, Allen thinks that an Irish player’s participation in Wimbledon can have a considerable impact on the perception of tennis in Ireland.

“Thursday’s match will  be one of the biggest in Conor’s career. Wimbledon in itself brings a pressure that you don’t have in other events. Even listening to the likes of Federer or Nadal, they say it’s great to win a grand slam but it’s special to at Wimbledon and all the players involved in the main draw would feel that too. It’s special to win any match at Wimbledon.

“It would be the most remarkable boost to the sport in Ireland. I think back to the start of last year when Luke Sorenson did something equivalent down in Australia. Even though it was on the other side of the world with a different time zone, the boost that the sport got here at home was phenomenal. Bring it back to London and Wimbledon, Conor Niland in the main draw in Wimbledon would do remarkable things for the sport here.”