Conor Niland’s Wimbledon qualifying campaign has fallen foul of the weather for a second successive day after play was abandoned yet again at Roehampton.
At least the Limerick man did manage to get on the court this morning, opening up a 4-2 lead over Nikola Mektic of Croatia in the first set before rain brought proceedings to an abrupt halt.
Both players will return to the Bank of England Club tomorrow morning, weather permitting, where the five-set match will resume. Conditions are forecast to be fair in the morning but more rain is due to arrive around midday.
If the match is not finished and play is not possible on the grass surface again on Sunday it will be moved indoors where a winner will be determined.
Niland is bidding to become the first Irish player to make it into the men’s singles at Wimbledon since Matt Doyle in 1984. Should he overcome the Croatian over the weekend the likes of Andy Roddick, Tomas Berdych, Gilles Simon and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga are waiting in the first round proper.
None of the potential qualifiers will learn their opponents until an open draw is made when all the matches are played to a conclusion. However, the draw for the main tournament was made this morning with three-time runner-up Roddick among those slated to meet one of the 20 qualifiers.
Other matches of note include the meeting of John Isner and Nicolas Mahut who contested the longest match in tennis history at Wimbledon last year. The duo played for more than 11 hours in 2010 before Isner won 70-68 in the fifth set.
Andy Murray has been drawn in the same half of the draw, as has world number one Rafael Nadal. The pair met in last year's semi-finals with Nadal winning in straight sets, a victory he repeated in the last four of the recent French Open.
Defending champion Nadal, who opens against American Michael Russell, could play Tomas Berdych in the quarter-finals in what would be a repeat of last year's final. Before that though he could have to negotiate tough matches against the big-hitting pair of Milos Raonic and Juan Martin Del Potro, the former US Open champion.
The British hopeful will play world number 56 Daniel Gimeno-Traver in the first round on Monday. The Spaniard has yet to go beyond the second round in two visits to SW19.
A quarter-final clash with Roddick - the man who beat him in the 2009 semis - is also on course for Murray.
In earlier rounds, a tricky third-round encounter with Croatia's Marin Cilic is a possibility, while Murray is seeded to meet Stanislas Wawrinka in the last 16 - the pair famously met under the Centre Court roof in 2009 with the Scot winning in five sets. The Swiss took his revenge at last year's US Open.
Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic are on course to meet each other in the last four in the bottom half of the draw. Six-time champion Federer opens against Mikhail Kukushkin and could play David Ferrer in the quarter-finals.
Djokovic starts against Jeremy Chardy. His scheduled last-eight foe is Robin Soderling. Surprise Queen's Club semi-finalist James Ward will meet 19th seed Michael Llodra, of France. His fellow Briton Dan Cox plays Sergiy Stakhovsky, while Dan Evans is up against Florian Mayer, the 20th seed.
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