It's not all that often that Irish tennis has got a day out in the sun since the high point of 1983.
And while we'll have to wait to see what the forecast has in store for this coming weekend of 3-4 February in Limerick, any potential lack of sunshine will be made up for by the throngs of spectators that will be amassing inside the UL Sports Arena for what had become quite a lesser spotted beast - a home Davis Cup tie.
Not since meeting Belarus in 2015 have the Ireland men's tennis team had the opportunity to host a Davis Cup event on home soil.
But that long wait is now ending with a strong Austria side coming to these shores in a play-off for a place in World Group I, the second tier of the international men's team competition.
Since the draw was made by the International Tennis Federation last September, the anticipation has been building and that was only cemented further by how quickly tickets were snapped up once they were made available in December, with the initial 3,000 allocation selling out within a couple of hours.
The excitement of the Irish fans is very much reflected by the members of the five-strong team named by Ireland's non-playing captain Conor Niland, not least for Simon Carr.
Joining Osgar O'hOisin, Michael Agwi, Conor Gannon and playing vice-captain David O’Hare in the squad, the 24-year-old returns to the fold after missing last September's crucial World Group II victory over El Salvador through injury.
Speaking to RTÉ Sport as the Austria tie closes in, Carr said he saw the coming weekend as a showcase opportunity for tennis on this island.
"Having players like Dominic Thiem and Sebastian Ofner coming over and exposing Irish juniors, Irish tennis enthusiasts to that sort of level is something that obviously doesn't happen very often," he said.
"So I think it's extremely important for Irish tennis in general to take advantage of this one-off - at the moment - opportunity and really do a good job of promoting the sport in general around the tie, not just on the two days but on the practice week.
"I'm assuming Austria will be there from Monday onwards so I suppose it's (important) to try to get people in for practice days and stuff like that and really make a week out of it and squeeze as much out of the week as we can from a promotional point of view."
Mullingar-born Carr was first called up to Ireland's Davis Cup team back in 2018 so the prospect of playing in front of a home crowd will be a novelty for him and his four team-mates.
However, it means Ireland can stack the deck in their favour to an extent as is the prerogative of any Davis Cup host.
In choosing to bring the tie to Limerick, they will be playing on a hard court and Carr, who enjoys that type of surface, expects it to be on the faster side which should suit Irish players who were largely raised on astroturf.
Consequently, he is hopeful it can be something of an equaliser for the underdogs in a format where there will be four singles match split either side of a doubles match.
"The format of Davis Cup is always tailored for the home team to have a definite advantage, especially with the court surface and facets like that are really important in determining outcomes of matches," he said.
"Obviously, the players have a lot of experience on all of the surfaces, but just tailoring the surface to our game styles offers us a little bit of a cushion.
"And with regard to the home crowd, I've never played a home tie so it's something, I assume I can speak on behalf of all the lads, that we're all really looking forward to.
"Now, having said that, in the last three to four years, all of our ties have been away and we've done really well to come up and get some good wins abroad in some tough environments so it's something all of us will relish and look to enjoy as much as possible."
Going into the tie, Austria are ranked 27th, a full 23 places above Ireland and can call upon the aforementioned 2020 US Open winner and former world number three Thiem and Ofner who is currently 37th in the ATP singles rankings.
'It adds a totally different dynamic'
Which makes it all the more important to try and make things as uncomfortable for the visitors on court in Limerick, according to Carr.
"The reality of tennis, especially on a faster court is it does level it out a good bit more," he said.
"It's easier to hold serve and if you can get to three-all, four-all in a set, and tennis is so finely balanced that a double fault here or a missed return there or something like that, you can break serve and all of a sudden, you're a set up and the whole dynamic of a match changes.
"It's a difficult environment for them (Austria) to come over. They're heavy favourites which brings its own pressure and I suppose our job is to utilise that pressure as much as possible and make them as uncomfortable as possible being in our environment and our turf.
"It adds a totally different dynamic. Davis Cup has thrown up some crazy results from tonnes of different ties in the past. Not just Irish ties but other ties in general when underdogs have definitely come good and upset, on paper, stronger teams."
While the aim will be to cause a seismic shock and claim a place in World Group I, Carr is also conscious of the need to help grow the sport in Ireland.
With his father being former Dublin All-Ireland winner Tommy Carr, who still plays a key role for his son in terms of helping with strength and conditioning work, GAA and other sports offered outlets to him as a child.
But after his mother introduced him to tennis at the age of nine, Carr the Younger never looked back from his early start at Mullingar Tennis Club all the way to the professional ranks.
And it's facilities and accessability that he feels will be key to taking the game forward and helping to bring through more Irish players. Key to that will be indoor facilities to provide more playing opportunities in the winter months.
"To be totally honest, I would never play outdoors from October/November onwards until March/April," he said.
"You get better quality practices inside in those sorts of conditions than if you were at all to be outside in winter months in Ireland.
"So it definitely would be in Irish tennis' interest to have more indoor facilities. Whichever way you get there doesn't really matter as long as we get those facilities up and running (and it) is definitely a massive goal for Tennis Ireland and all the Irish branches that want to grow the game in the country."
