Last week it was league tennis in France, this week Conor Gannon took his first steps from the cosseted world college tennis in Tennessee on to the International Tennis Federation professional tour. It was like the first bike ride without stabilisers, a finding exercise.
Swapping the comfort blanket of college for the cold winds of the lower tier of tennis was for Gannon the answer to his question, after four years in the USA, of what to do next.
He will find his way to Hungary, Slovakia and then “another eastern European country” before Germany, Ireland and maybe the hard-court swing in Asia.
For him, becoming what he had always wanted meant taking one of two choices. One was pragmatic and commonly practised – get a job and play social tennis. The other was to set out at 22 years old into the foothills of tennis Everest.
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There were no forms to fill in at the tour office, no performative signing of papers or clicking cameras. Gannon just said goodbye to his family and friends, then slipped away to the clay courts of Europe.
“You don’t have to sign anything,” he says. “You get up and do it. It’s straightforward. So ...”.
Equipped for what to expect, Gannon has read Conor Niland’s biting memoir The Racquet – On tour with Tennis’s Golden Generation and the other 99 per cent and has been helped along organisationally by Scott Barron, who competed in the 1996 Olympic Games for Ireland with Owen Casey and reached a world ranking of 263.
Gannon has taken the advice, knows the pitfalls and he is, he says, a dreamer but not a fantasist.
“Yeah, of course a lot of self-doubt comes into play,” he says. “It wasn’t a straightforward decision either. It was a decision in my life where ... there were two different paths I could go down and get a job, quit tennis and just play socially, or go the route of my dream. I have dreamt of playing in a Grand Slam for as long as I can remember.
“But it’s scary trying to do that because of the work behind the scenes and the different thoughts that come into your head, like if you are good enough.
“The years in college went so fast and then all of a sudden it’s right at me. It’s my decision now. It was a really tough decision to make. But in 20 or 30 years if I didn’t do it I think I’d be kicking myself. I have a dream. I have to go get it and in my opinion I think I have a chance to do something not many Irish people or even tennis players can dream of. I think if I have just a slim chance of that, then 100 per cent go for it.
“You have to be optimistic. You have to be a dreamer. You can’t be infiltrated by people’s negativity. You have got to be a complete optimist to try to play tennis. You have got to be a dreamer to achieve it.”
James McGee was the last Irishman to compete in a Grand Slam event when he qualified for the US Open in 2014, losing in the first round. In 2011 Niland and Luke Sorensen also qualified for the main draw at the US Open, while Niland also played in that year’s Wimbledon. Ireland just doesn’t blow through the Grand Slams very often.
Gannon is not unaware of how difficult it is to set foot in the All England Club, Flushing Meadow or Roland Garros. The three Irish players who did had to get through a qualifying competition by winning three matches before the main event. Niland’s top ranking of 129, McGee’s 146 and Sorensen’s 175 were not good enough to automatically earn them one of the 128 places in a Grand Slam draw.
Gannon’s hopes are on the face of it simple. Learn, improve and earn ranking points.
It is difficult, although even a defeat in the first round of Wimbledon earned players €71,000 last year. If a player got into the four main Grand Slam draws and did not win a match, they could generate an income of almost €300,000 a year. But that is the sugar-coated part of the tennis dream.
“I don’t really mind what other people think of my decision, but I have to pat myself on the back because not many will go out and do it, travel around the world to get ranking points and try to compete in the Grand Slams,” says Gannon. “It’s not easy. It’s a tough life. But I’m fortunate to be in a position to make that choice.
“I think people don’t get enough credit for trying something and failing. I hope that won’t be the case. Even going out and trying for how many years I do it, maybe I’ll become successful, maybe I won’t.
“It is a solo sport, you’ve got to be selfish, although from my own ethics, I don’t want to be that selfish person. But you must take opportunities, and I completely understand that. I don’t want someone else to take an opportunity away from me, so you must be gritty out there.”
Currently ranked at 1,317, Gannon has ground to make up. He knows his level is better than that number and has beaten players ranked around the 500 mark. He doesn’t want to put a number on what he hopes to achieve and end up playing hostage to it, but in time he needs to get close to a 100 ranking to play in the lucrative events.
Survival and staying healthy is the height of current ambition as he hits the first rungs of the game. There will be dog days there over the coming weeks.
“I haven’t played a tournament since last summer,” he says. “I know my level is there. I know I can play. It’s about believing in myself that I belong there and playing enough tournaments to know how everything works.
“It’s a new job. I’m sure when other people go into a new job, they don’t know how things operate. You have got to find your feet and if I lose the first three weeks in a row it’s not a big deal. I expect the best but you’ve got to be realistic and keep ticking the boxes.
“Of course I’m going to get fed up at some stage. Of course. I could be in Romania playing a 25k [ITF tournament with $25,000 in prize money] and lose in the first round and it’s like I want to quit. I’m going to do it right. I’m not going to half-ass it, take time away and put energy into something else.
“All my energy and focus I want to go into my tennis. I don’t want to go coaching at night when I should be recovering or stretching. I don’t think Novak Djokovic would be doing that so why would I?”
The money will come from parents, hopefully tennis, begging and borrowing. There is little funding in Ireland to launch a tennis career and few clay courts. before leaving there was difficulty finding hitting partners. But there again he doesn’t want to launch his career blowing off on frustrations and kinks in the Irish system. That, he says, invites defeatism, kills good energy.
“In third year I didn’t think about tennis once,” he says. “The only thing I wanted to do was rugby [in St Michael’s College]. One hundred per cent I saw myself playing for the SCT [the Senior Cup team], maybe outhalf or second centre, maybe Leinster U18.
“But I’ve always imagined the best possible outcome in each sport I played. I’ve always wanted to get a little bit more out of everything.”
And out of life too.
