Team captain Conor Niland will not be travelling with the Irish Davis Cup team when they compete in the Europe Group 3 event in Larnaca, Cyprus from 16th to 19th June. It is the first Davis Cup event the former Wimbledon and US Open singles player will miss since he first turned out for Ireland 21 years ago. Ireland hopes to qualify for the Group 2 playoffs later in the year.
“Due to current Covid travel quarantines being unfeasible with our full-time jobs, unfortunately both myself and the assistant coach are unable to travel to Cyprus in June for the Davis Cup Group III tournament,” said Niland.
"Two of Tennis Ireland's regional performance directors, Cian Blake and Carlos Miranda, will be standing in for us for the week. It is the first Davis Cup event that I have been unable to travel to since my debut as a player against Croatia 21 years ago, and I'm disappointed to be missing it."
Cian Blake is the Munster performance director and Carlos Miranda is the Ulster performance director. Both will be travelling in place of Niland and will act as co-captains.
The Irish team will be comprised of Simon Carr, Julian Bradley, Osgar O'hOisin and David O'Hare with the draw taking place on June 14th, where two pools of teams will be decided from Ireland, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Monaco, Georgia, Iceland and Malta. Liechtenstein were originally included but have withdrawn from the event this year.
“I will be in regular contact with the team and deputy coaches throughout the tie and I have no doubt that the lads will perform well,” added Niland. “I very much look forward to travelling with the team again later in the year, where we hope to be involved in a Group 2 play-off tie.”
