Random sports stuff

Conor Niland’s hopes of reaching the main draw of the French Open tennis championship were dashed in a straight sets defeat to Julian Reister on Thursday morning.

The Irish number one went down 6-2 6-4 to the 166th-ranked German, who is three players higher than Niland in the official ATP list.

Niland bowed out of the US Open qualifiers at the final qualifying round stage earlier this year but travelled to France high on confidence after lifting the Israel Open title, his second Challenger Tour victory.