IRISH OPEN:CONOR NILAND gets his Shelbourne Irish Open campaign under way this evening against Britain's Alexander Slabinsky at Fitzwilliam in Dublin.
Niland comes into the €64,000 ATP Challenger tournament fresh from last week's win at the ITF Futures world-ranking event in his home town of Limerick.
Other Irish players in first-round action today include wild cards Tristan Farron-Mahon, Colin O'Brien and Eoin Heavey.
Farron-Mahon will face a tough match against fourth seed and former world number 65 Kristian Pless from Denmark. O'Brien plays number five seed Aisam-Ul-Haq Quereshi from Pakistan, while Heavey faces India's Prakash Amritraj.
Top seed Mischa Zverev from Germany meets Dutch qualifier Michel Koning today. Zverev, the 2006 champion, dispatched Juan Carlos-Ferrero, a former world number one, in the second round at Wimbledon last week but had to retire from his third-round match.
