Jarkko Nieminen

Jarkko Nieminen

File:Jarkko Nieminen - Roland-Garros 2013 - 005.jpg
Country (sports)	Finland
Residence	Masku, Finland
Born	(1981-07-23) 23 July 1981 Masku, Finland
Height
Turned pro	2000
Retired	November 9, 2015
Plays	Left-handed (two-handed backhand)
Prize money	$7.743.345
Singles
Career record	405–348
Career titles	2
Highest ranking	No. 13 (10 July 2006)
Grand Slam Singles results
Australian Open	QF (2008)
French Open	4R (2003)
Wimbledon	QF (2006)
US Open	QF (2005)
Other tournaments
Olympic Games	2R (2004, 2012)
Doubles
Career record	150–192
Career titles	5
Highest ranking	No. 42 (28 January 2008)
Grand Slam Doubles results
Australian Open	SF (2010)
French Open	2R (2003, 2008, 2014)
Wimbledon	2R (2007)
US Open	QF (2008)

Jarkko Kalervo Nieminen (born 23 July 1981) is a Finnish former professional tennis player. His highest ranking of world No. 13, achieved in July 2006, is a Finnish record. He has won two ATP singles titles and five doubles titles in his career. His best performances in Grand Slam tournaments have been reaching the quarterfinals of the 2005 US Open, the 2006 Wimbledon Championships, and the 2008 Australian Open.

Arguably Finland's best player to date, Nieminen is also the first and so far only Finnish player to have won an ATP singles title and to have reached the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam event. He is also notable for winning the shortest recorded Masters Tour tennis match in Open Era history, defeating Bernard Tomic in just 28 minutes and 20 seconds in the first round of the 2014 Sony Open Tennis. He has been ranked inside the Top 90 since 2001.

On 23 June 2015, he announced his retirement from professional tennis at the end of the season, playing 2015 Stockholm Open as his last event.

His wife, Anu Nieminen, is currently Finland's top-ranked badminton women's single player.

On April 2016, it was announced that Nieminen will compete in floorball in season 2016–2017 at Finnish Salibandyliiga representing SC Classic.

Junior career

As a junior Nieminen reached as high as No. 11 in the world in 1999 (and No. 20 in doubles), and won the 1999 Jr US Open.

Career highlights

1999

• Defeated Kristian Pless of Denmark to win his first junior Grand Slam, the US Open.
• Finished the year at No. 11 in the world junior rankings.
• Made his Davis Cup debut against Italy, losing to Andrea Gaudenzi.

2000

• Won his first Davis Cup match, beating Mikael Tillström of Sweden in a dead-rubber.

2001: Breaking the top 100

• Became the first Finn to reach an ATP final since Leo Palin in 1981, beating Pless, Younes El Aynaoui, defending champion Thomas Johansson and three-time winner Thomas Enqvist, before losing to Sjeng Schalken in five sets in Stockholm.
• Posted a 38–12 Challenger record, winning four titles.
• Finished the year in the top 100 for the first time.

2002: Breaking the top 50

• Reached clay-court finals in Estoril and Majorca, losing to David Nalbandian and Gastón Gaudio, respectively.
• Became the first Finnish player to end the season in the top 50.

2003

• Reached his fourth career ATP final in Munich, losing to Roger Federer.
• Advanced to the fourth round at the 2003 French Open, losing to Fernando González.
• Was at best ranked World No. 27, a career-high until 2006.

2004

• Represented Finland at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, losing to Max Mirnyi in the second round.
• Finished in the top 100 for the fourth consecutive year, despite missing nearly three months due to injury.

2005

• Defeated world no. 7 Andre Agassi in a first round five-setter at the 2005 French Open.
• Was defeated in five sets by Lleyton Hewitt in the quarterfinals of the 2005 U.S. Open, having become the first Finn to reach a Grand Slam quarterfinal.

2006: First ATP title

• Won his first ATP singles title in January by defeating Mario Ančić in the final in Auckland.
• Recorded his career-best ATP Masters Series performance by reaching the quarterfinals of the Indian Wells Masters, but lost to Paradorn Srichaphan.
• Broke into the top 20 for the first time in his career in April.
• Reached the quarterfinals of the 2006 Wimbledon Championships, but lost to World No. 2 Rafael Nadal in straight sets.
• Broke into the top 15 for the first time in his career in July after his Wimbledon success.
• Reached the quarterfinals of the Canada Masters, losing to Andy Murray.
• Reached his sixth career ATP final in Stockholm, losing to James Blake.
• Finished the season by reaching the quarterfinals of the Paris Masters, where he lost to Tommy Robredo.

2007: 200 wins

• Won his first ATP doubles title in September, paired with Robert Lindstedt. They beat Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and Rohan Bopanna in Mumbai, India on hard courts.
• His best singles performance in 2007 came at Davidoff Swiss Indoors, where he was beaten in the finals by World No. 1 Roger Federer in straight sets, 6–3, 6–4. En route to the finals, he had beaten Robby Ginepri, Guillermo Cañas, World No. 8 Fernando González, and Marcos Baghdatis.

2008

• Lost to Michaël Llodra in the final at the Adelaide International, 3–6, 4–6.
• Made the quarter-finals at the Australian Open, losing in straight sets to Rafael Nadal.
• Represented Finland at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, losing to Swede Thomas Johansson in the first round.

2009

• Defeated top seed Novak Djokovic in the 2009 Medibank International semifinal, 6–4, 7–6. He lost to David Nalbandian in the final, 4–6, 7–6, 2–6.
• Withdrew from the 2009 Australian Open half-way through his first-round clash with 28th seed Paul-Henri Mathieu.
• Underwent surgery for a wrist injury and sidelined for three months, thus missing Roland Garros and Wimbledon.
• Returned to professional tennis at the New Haven tournament in the US in August.
• Defeated Frenchman Stéphane Robert in the ATP Challenger tournament final in Jersey, United Kingdom in November.

2010

• Defeated Nick Lindahl in the first round of the Australian Open, before losing a tight five-set match to Florent Serra in the second round after having two match points in the fourth set. In the doubles competition, he reached the semifinals with partner Michael Kohlmann, losing to the top seeds Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan.
• Reached his first semifinal of the season at the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships, beating Paolo Lorenzi, 6–3, 6–4, in the first round, Evgeny Korolev, 5–7, 6–1, 6–0, in the second round, winning 12 consecutive games to close out the match, and finally third seed Benjamin Becker in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, he lost against Ernests Gulbis of Latvia, who ended up winning the tournament against Ivo Karlović in the final.
• Won his second doubles title with Swede Johan Brunström in Gstaad, Switzerland on clay courts.
• Lost to Guillermo García-López in the PTT Thailand Open final, 6–4, 3–6, 6–4.

2011: 300 wins

• Reached his 11th career ATP final in Stockholm, losing to Gaël Monfils.

2012: 2nd ATP Title

• Nieminen won the Sydney International for his second career title against Julien Benneteau. He was a finalist in doubles in the same tournament with Matthew Ebden against Mike Bryan and Bob Bryan.
• He was a quarterfinalist at the Open Sud de France and in Rotterdam.
• In the 2012 Summer Olympics, Nieminen lost to Andy Murray in the second round, who went on to win Gold in the singles and Silver in the mixed doubles.

2013

• Nieminen was the runner-up at the Power Horse Cup in Düsseldorf, beating no. 14 Tommy Haas.
• Nieminen reached a Masters quarterfinal for the first time since 2006 after beating no. 7 Juan Martín del Potro in the third round of the Monte-Carlo Masters. He also reached the third round in Indian Wells and Miami.
• Nieminen was a quarterfinalist at the Valencia Open 500, the Japan Open, and the Sydney International.
• He was semifinalist at the Open Sud de France, losing to Richard Gasquet.
• He won the Helsinki Challenger.
• He won his third doubles title at the BMW Open with Dmitry Tursunov.

2014

• Nieminen started the year 13th time in a row in the top 100.
• He reached the Open Sud de France and Malaysian Open semifinals and the third round of the Indian Wells Masters and the Madrid Masters.
• He played the shortest recorded Masters tennis match, defeating Bernard Tomic at the Miami Masters in 28 minutes and 20 seconds.
• Reached the second round in three of the four Grand Slams, one of the longest Wimbledon tiebreakers losing to ninth seed John Isner.
• He won his fourth doubles title at the Bet-at-home Cup Kitzbühel, the first by an all-Finnish team, with Henri Kontinen.

2015: 400 wins and retirement

At Wimbledon, Nieminen, who had already announced his retirement at the end of the season, played Lleyton Hewitt in the first round, with Hewitt also stating his intention to retire before the 2016 event. Nieminen earned his first win over Hewitt in five gruelling sets. At the US Open, Nieminen faced Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the first round, with Tsonga prevailing in straight sets despite Jarkko's best efforts. Afterwards, he confirmed that this was his last match at a grand slam.

Nieminen played his final ATP match on the 20th of October at the Stockholm tournament, losing 6-3 6-7 6-4 to Nicolas Almagro. Jarkko had match points in the second set tiebreaker but narrowly missed one and was very unlucky to lose the other. Fellow Scandinavian tennis player Robin Söderling was in attendance to pay tribute to Jarkko and the Finn was visibly moved as he gave his farewell speech. His final official match was against his old friend and rival Roger Federer at the Hartwall Arena, Helsinki on the ninth of November.

2016: Comeback at the Davis Cup

Nieminen came out of retirement in order to play for his country at the Davis Cup against Zimbabwe. He won his singles tie with a so-called triple bagel.

ATP career finals

Singles: 13 (2–11)

Legend (Singles)
Grand Slam Tournaments (0–0)
ATP World Tour Finals (0–0)
ATP World Tour Masters 1000 (0–0)
ATP World Tour 500 Series (0–0)
ATP World Tour 250 Series (2–11)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent	Score
Runner-up	1.	29 October 2001	Stockholm Open, Stockholm, Sweden	Hard	Sjeng Schalken	6–3, 3–6, 3–6, 6–4, 3–6
Runner-up	2.	15 April 2002	Estoril Open, Estoril, Portugal	Clay	David Nalbandian	4–6, 6–7(5–7)
Runner-up	3.	6 May 2002	Open de Tenis Comunidad Valenciana, Majorca, Spain	Clay	Gastón Gaudio	2–6, 3–6
Runner-up	4.	5 May 2003	BMW Open, Munich, Germany	Clay	Roger Federer	1–6, 4–6
Winner	1.	9 January 2006	Heineken Open, Auckland, New Zealand	Hard	Mario Ančić	6–2, 6–2
Runner-up	5.	16 October 2006	Stockholm Open, Stockholm, Sweden (2)	Hard	James Blake	4–6, 2–6
Runner-up	6.	29 October 2007	Davidoff Swiss Indoors, Basel, Switzerland	Hard	Roger Federer	3–6, 4–6
Runner-up	7.	6 January 2008	Next Generation Adelaide International, Adelaide, Australia	Hard	Michaël Llodra	3–6, 4–6
Runner-up	8.	17 January 2009	Medibank International, Sydney, Australia	Hard	David Nalbandian	3–6, 7–6(11–9), 2–6
Runner-up	9.	3 October 2010	PTT Thailand Open, Bangkok, Thailand	Hard (i)	Guillermo García-López	4–6, 6–3, 4–6
Runner-up	10.	23 October 2011	Stockholm Open, Stockholm, Sweden (3)	Hard (i)	Gaël Monfils	5–7, 6–3, 2–6
Winner	2.	15 January 2012	Medibank International, Sydney, Australia	Hard	Julien Benneteau	6–2, 7–5
Runner-up	11.	25 May 2013	Power Horse Cup, Düsseldorf, Germany	Clay	Juan Mónaco	4–6, 3–6

Doubles: 9 (5–4)

Legend (Doubles)
Grand Slam Tournaments (0–0)
ATP World Tour Finals (0–0)
ATP World Tour Masters 1000 (0–0)
ATP World Tour 500 Series (0–0)
ATP World Tour 250 Series (5–4)

Outcome	No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Runner-up	1.	29 September 2003	Thailand Open, Bangkok, Thailand	Hard	Andrew Kratzmann	Jonathan Erlich Andy Ram	3–6, 6–7(4–7)
Winner	1.	24 September 2007	Chennai Open, Bombay, India	Hard	Robert Lindstedt	Rohan Bopanna Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi	7–6(7–3), 7–6(7–5)
Runner-up	2.	15 February 2009	SAP Open, San Jose, United States	Hard (i)	Rohan Bopanna	Tommy Haas Radek Štěpánek	2–6, 3–6
Winner	2.	1 August 2010	Allianz Suisse Open Gstaad, Gstaad, Switzerland	Clay	Johan Brunström	Marcelo Melo Bruno Soares	6–3, 6–7(4–7), [11–9]
Runner-up	3.	24 October 2010	If Stockholm Open, Stockholm, Sweden	Hard (i)	Johan Brunström	Eric Butorac Jean-Julien Rojer	3–6, 4–6
Runner-up	4.	15 January 2012	Apia International Sydney, Sydney, Australia	Hard	Matthew Ebden	Bob Bryan Mike Bryan	1–6, 4–6
Winner	3.	5 May 2013	BMW Open, Munich, Germany	Clay	Dmitry Tursunov	Marcos Baghdatis Eric Butorac	6–1, 6–4
Winner	4.	2 August 2014	Bet-at-home Cup Kitzbühel, Kitzbühel, Austria	Clay	Henri Kontinen	Daniele Bracciali Andrey Golubev	6–1, 6–4
Winner	5.	1 March 2015	Argentina Open, Buenos Aires, Argentina	Clay	André Sá	Pablo Andújar Olivier Marach	4–6, 6–4, [10–7]

Singles performance timeline

Key

W

F

SF

QF

R#

RR

Q#

A

P

Z#

PO

G

F-S

SF-B

NMS

NH

(W) Won tournament; reached (F) final, (SF) semifinal, (QF) quarterfinal; (R#) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; competed at a (RR) round-robin stage; reached a (Q#) qualification round; (A) absent from tournament; played in a (Z#) Davis/Fed Cup Zonal Group (with number indication) or (PO) play-off; won a (G) gold, (F-S) silver or (SF-B) bronze Olympic medal; a (NMS) downgraded Masters Series/1000 tournament; or (NH) tournament not held.

To avoid confusion and double counting, these charts are updated either at the conclusion of a tournament, or when the player's participation in the tournament has ended.

Tournament	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	W–L	Win %
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open	A	1R	3R	2R	3R	3R	2R	QF	1R	2R	1R	1R	2R	2R	3R	17–14	54.84
French Open	A	3R	4R	A	2R	1R	3R	3R	A	1R	1R	2R	2R	2R	1R	13–12	52.00
Wimbledon	A	2R	3R	A	1R	QF	3R	2R	A	2R	1R	2R	1R	2R	2R	14–12	53.85
US Open	Q3	1R	2R	1R	QF	1R	1R	3R	2R	1R	1R	2R	2R	1R	1R	10–14	41.67
Win–Loss	0–0	3–4	8–4	1–2	7–4	6–4	5–4	9–4	1–2	2–4	0–4	3–4	3–4	3–4	3–4	54–52	50.94
ATP Masters Series
Indian Wells Masters	A	A	1R	2R	2R	QF	3R	2R	2R	A	2R	1R	3R	3R	2R	12–12	50.00
Miami Masters	A	2R	3R	2R	2R	3R	4R	2R	2R	A	1R	1R	3R	2R	2R	11–13	45.83
Monte Carlo Masters	A	A	3R	2R	A	1R	1R	2R	Q2	1R	2R	2R	QF	1R	Q1	9–9	50.00
Rome Masters	A	A	3R	A	A	2R	1R	1R	A	Q2	3R	1R	1R	A	A	5–7	41.67
Madrid Masters	A	2R	1R	Q1	A	1R	1R	2R	A	A	A	A	A	3R	A	4–6	40.00
Canada Masters	A	2R	1R	A	A	QF	2R	1R	A	1R	1R	A	1R	A	A	5–8	38.46
Cincinnati Masters	A	3R	2R	A	A	1R	3R	1R	A	Q2	Q1	1R	2R	A	A	6–7	46.15
Shanghai Masters	Not Masters Series								A	A	A	1R	1R	A	A	0–2	00.00
Paris Masters	A	2R	1R	A	1R	QF	2R	1R	A	2R	Q2	A	1R	Q2	A	5–8	38.46
Hamburg Masters	A	A	2R	A	A	3R	3R	2R	Not Masters Series							6–4	60.00
Win–Loss	0–0	6–5	7–9	1–2	2–3	12–9	9–9	3–9	2–2	1–3	4–5	1–6	8–8	5–4	2–2	63–76	45.32
Career statistics
Titles–Finals	0–1	0–2	0–1	0–0	0–0	1–2	0–1	0–1	0–1	0–1	0–1	1–1	0–1	0–0	0–0	2–13	15.38
Year End Ranking	61	40	36	77	28	15	27	37	88	39	77	41	39	73	153	$6,906,815

Doubles performance timeline

Tournament	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	W–L	Win %
Grand Slam tournaments
Australian Open	1R	A	2R	2R	1R	2R	2R	SF	2R	1R	2R	2R	1R	11–11	50.00
French Open	2R	A	A	1R	1R	2R	A	1R	1R	1R	A	2R	1R	3–9	25.00
Wimbledon	1R	A	A	1R	2R	A	A	1R	1R	1R	1R	1R	A	1–8	11.11
US Open	A	A	1R	3R	2R	QF	2R	2R	1R	1R	1R	1R	A	8–10	44.44
Win–Loss	1–3	0–0	1–1	3–4	2–4	5–3	2–2	5–4	1–4	0–4	1–3	2–4	0–2	23–38	37.70

Records

• These records were attained in the Open Era of tennis.

Tournament	Year	Record accomplished	Player tied
Sony Open Tennis	2014	Won the shortest recorded tennis match in Open Era history (28m20s)	Stands alone

External links

• Jarkko Nieminen's official website
• Jarkko Nieminen at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• Jarkko Nieminen at the Davis Cup
• Nieminen World Ranking History