Castlebar player on Davis Cup team

Castlebar player on Davis Cup team


Daniel Carey

CASTLEBAR player Daniel Glancy has made history after being selected to play for the Irish Davis Cup team.
The 24-year-old, a former Irish Junior Open champion, will play for Ireland against Finland in Castleknock Tennis Club, Dublin on April 5-7. The eldest son of Eamonn and Margaret Glancy, he plays on the pro tour and trains with Tennis Ireland at the National Training Centre in DCU.
“I’m delighted to have been selected,” Glancy told The Mayo News. “I’m really looking forward to it. I’ve been part of the team before as fifth man, but it’s my first time on the first four.”
A full-time professional for the last four years, Glancy travels around the world to play in tournaments. Having picked up some points in recent events, he expects to ‘go to a career high’ of about 848 on the ATP singles rankings, and is currently at around 420 on the doubles rankings.
“I’m always improving, that’s the main thing,” explains Castleknock-based Glancy, who plays in the Irish Open every year in Dublin, and whose goal is to play the Grand Slam tournaments and reach the top 100 in the world. He trains six days a week, days that involve four hours of tennis, an hour on-court speed work, and a two-hour gym session.
“I’d get up at about eight o’clock and I wouldn’t get back until around seven at night. It’s pretty much a full day’s work. At the end of the day, I’m wrecked! I enjoy it though,” he says.
Originally from Castlebar, Glancy also lived in Ballina, Ballyhaunis, Letterkenny and Killybegs before returning to his native town at the age of 12. His first memory of being on a tennis court was aged ‘four or five’ at the back of the Downhill Hotel in Ballina, but he was nine before he really took up the game.
“When I was younger, I wasn’t that good; I just played it for fun,” he says. “I used to do Gaelic [football], soccer and horse-riding as well, but as I got into my teenage years … I just wanted to play tennis … I liked that it was an individual sport, and very challenging, because it’s very tough, physically and mentally.”
He started training at the WestWood Clontarf club in Dublin aged 16, playing junior tournaments, and won the national under-18 title in 2006. He went to DCU on a tennis scholarship for a year, but wasn’t enjoying it, so he made the bold move to turn pro.
“I didn’t want to be in college studying; I wanted to go play tennis,” he says candidly. “So I decided after a year, I would try the professional circuit, and I’ve been doing that since I was 20. I’m in my fourth year of it now, and I’m going to continue for as long as possible and as long as I enjoy it.”
In 2011, Conor Niland became the first Irishman in 34 years to qualify for Wimbledon. The tennis scene in Ireland is ‘quite good socially’, says Glancy, especially around Dublin, where there are a lot of tennis clubs. But there are only a handful of professionals – “It’s very difficult for players to travel and to fund themselves,” he explains. “And it’s very tough for juniors looking to go professional, because of the weather, and because we don’t have hard courts and clay courts”.
Glancy is entirely self-funded – from playing for tennis clubs in France and Germany at weekends, coaching in Clontarf when at home, and entering tournaments with prize-money. He’s ‘always on the lookout’ for sponsorship, but it’s ‘difficult’ to find in the current climate.
“It is very expensive, obviously – the travel costs, hotels, equipment – it costs a lot to support a tennis player. So at the moment I just fund it all myself … You’re travelling a lot, so it takes it out of you. But I’m used to it now, and it’s part of the job. Getting on an aeroplane is like hopping on a bus for me now.”
Daniel and his Davis Cup team-mates are wished the best of luck from all at Castlebar Tennis Club. Tickets for the game are available at www.tennisireland.ie