Serena Williams always had an aura about her and she left a lasting impression on most people she meets.
Former tennis professional Conor Niland had the chance to practise with the future 23-time Grand Slam champion when they were both 16.
Niland, who reached a high of 129 in the world, details his brushes with the iconic names over his career, as well as some of the brutal reality of being a pro outside the top 100, in his new book The Racket.
It is one of the six books nominated for the prestigious William Hill Sports Book of the Year in 2024.
talkSPORT’s Adrian Durham sat down with Niland in an extensive interview where they talked about sections in the book and his encounter with the Williams sisters comes up.
Niland and his friend Steven Nugent went out to the famed Nick Bollettieri academy when he was just 16.
“We were sent out there for two weeks by this anonymous Irish-American donor. We turned up at the airport with nobody there to collect us and we just gave this taxi driver an address and rocked up and told to go to court 72 at 7am the next morning.
“There were about 50 other kids on the court and one coach. It didn’t seem that impressive. We were all standing in line going one-by-one. It’s a session you do when you’re six years old, you do a forehand and a backhand then go to the back of the line.
“I hit the biggest forehand I could down the line, then the coach sent me and Nuge to Percy on court one. He was running the squads for the best under-18s in the academy.
“We spent a couple of days there then Serena and Venus came from Wimbledon and they invited us to come and hit with the Williams sisters over the course of three or four days.
“It was great! Obviously all the sessions were completely run for them, no one was asking me if I wanted to work on my wide serve.
“It was incredible. She was 25 in the world at the time and Venus was five, they were 16 and 17. They’d already made it.
“Richard Williams was walking around and shambled over to me before one of the sessions. He knew I hadn’t hit with Serena yet and goes to me ‘it’s your turn today, boy’.
“I was like ‘oh god, I’m kind of scared now’.
“We knew once you get a chance to play with these girls and do well you might get asked back.
“I overheard a conversation between Serena and her coach about who she wanted to practice with tomorrow, the blonde haired boy or brown haired one. Nuge had coloured his hair blonde that year.
“When she said the brown haired boy I knew I’d been given the nod.”
Something Niland touches on in the book is a possible what if moment for him, as he was asked to return to the academy.
“We rubbed shoulders with some of the people at the top of the game,” he continued. “They asked us if we were interested in coming back to the academy full-time. For some reason we didn’t.
“I went back home and went back to boarding school in England. I almost wrote in the book ‘why didn’t I stay?’”
Listen to the full conversation with talkSPORT’s Adrian Durham on our YouTube channel.
