Mark Nielsen (born 8 October 1977) is a former professional

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

player from New Zealand.

Career

Nielsen had a highest junior ranking of 16th and during his early career on the juniors circuit had wins over

Dominik Hrbatý Dominik Hrbatý (; born 4 January 1978) is a Slovakian former professional tennis player. Hrbatý reached the semifinals of the 1999 French Open – Men's singles, 1999 French Open, and achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 12 in ...

Mark Philippoussis Mark Anthony Philippoussis ( ; born 7 November 1976) is an Australian former professional tennis player of Greek and Italian descent. Philippoussis' greatest achievements are winning two Davis Cup titles with Australia in 1999 and 2003, winni ...

and

Paradorn Srichaphan Paradorn Srichaphan ( th, ภราดร ศรีชาพันธุ์; ; ; born 14 June 1979) is a retired professional tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or betw ...

.ITF Junior Profile
/ref> At the 1994 Australian Open, Nielsen and partner Jean-Noel Grinda Jr made the boys' doubles

semi-final A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

s. The following year he and countryman Teo Susnjak won doubles titles at the Australian Hardcourt Junior Championships and Philippines Junior Championships. In 1997, Nielsen began playing

Davis Cup The Davis Cup is the premier international team event in men's tennis. It is run by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and is contested annually between teams from competing countries in a knock-out format. It is described by the organis ...

tennis for New Zealand.Davis Cup Profile
/ref> He took part in a World Group play-off tie against

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

in 1999, which the New Zealanders lost without winning a match. Nielsen lost both of his singles rubbers, to Félix Mantilla and

Francisco Clavet Francisco Javier Clavet González de Castejón (; born 24 October 1968), known as Pato Clavet (), is a former professional tennis player from Spain. He won eight singles titles, reached the semifinals of the 1992 Indian Wells Masters and the 1 ...

, but did take the former into a fifth set. Nielsen was a wildcard entrant at the 1998 Heineken Open and in front of his home crowd defeated Brazilian

Fernando Meligeni Fernando Ariel Meligeni (born April 12, 1971), nicknamed ''Fininho'' (diminutive form in Portuguese for ''thin''), is a Brazilian former professional tennis player. He won 3 singles titles and reached the semi-finals of both the 1999 French Ope ...

in the opening round, before being eliminated by

Marcelo Ríos Marcelo Andrés Ríos Mayorga (; born 26 December 1975) is a Chilean former world No. 1 tennis player. Nicknamed ''"El Chino"'' ("The Chinese") and ''"El zurdo de Vitacura"'' ("The Lefty from Vitacura"), he became the first Latin American play ...

.ATP World Tour Profile
/ref> He competed in the Heineken Open a further seven times and also reached the second round in 2002, with a win over seventh seed and world number 33

Andreas Vinciguerra Andreas Vinciguerra (; born 19 February 1981) is a former tennis player from Sweden, who turned professional in 1998. He won 1 singles title in Copenhagen; reached the semi-finals of the 2001 Rome Masters and 2001 Paris Masters; and attained a ...

. With partner James Shortall, Nielsen also made the quarter-finals of the doubles that year. He was a doubles quarter-finalist again at the Heineken Open in 2003 and 2004. At

Islamabad Islamabad (; ur, , ) is the capital city of Pakistan. It is the country's ninth-most populous city, with a population of over 1.2 million people, and is federally administered by the Pakistani government as part of the Islamabad Capital T ...

in 2004, Nielsen played the longest match in New Zealand's Davis Cup history, against Pakistan's Aisam Qureshi. The five set match lasted for five hours and 20 minutes.''

The New Zealand Herald ''The New Zealand Herald'' is a daily newspaper published in Auckland, New Zealand, owned by New Zealand Media and Entertainment, and considered a newspaper of record for New Zealand. It has the largest newspaper circulation of all newspapers ...

''
"Tennis: Rea - I'm still sick in stomach"
2 October 2004, Terry Maddaford In 2006, a sample that Nielsen had provided while playing the qualifying stages at the

Australian Open The Australian Open is a tennis tournament held annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia. The tournament is the first of the four Grand Slam tennis events held each year, preceding the French Open, Wimbledon, and the US Open. Th ...

, tested positive for

finasteride Finasteride, sold under the brand names Proscar and Propecia among others, is a medication used to treat hair loss and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) in men. It can also be used to treat excessive hair growth in women and as a part of horm ...

, which can be used as a masking agent.ITF Press Release: Decision in the case of Mark Nielsen
/ref> An independent Anti-Doping Tribunal accepted Nielsen's claim that he took the product containing the positive substance to treat hair-loss, but found that by failing to check whether the hair-loss product contained such a substance indicated a "serious dereliction of duty on the part of any player who participates in a sport governed by the WADA Code". He was given a two-year suspension by the

International Tennis Federation The International Tennis Federation (ITF) is the governing body of world tennis, wheelchair tennis, and beach tennis. It was founded in 1913 as the International Lawn Tennis Federation by twelve national tennis associations. As of 2016, there a ...

. The ban effectively ended his career, but once the suspension ended he did briefly return to compete on the Futures circuit and he played a Davis Cup tie in

Kuwait Kuwait (; ar, الكويت ', or ), officially the State of Kuwait ( ar, دولة الكويت '), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated in the northern edge of Eastern Arabia at the tip of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to the nort ...

. That would be his 20th and final Davis Cup tie, a tally bettered only by

Onny Parun Onny Parun (born 15 April 1947) is a former tennis player of Croatian descent from New Zealand, who was among the world's top 20 for five years and who reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon in 1971 and 1972. He made the final of the Australi ...

. He finished with 25 Davis Cup wins to his name, from 43 rubbers. His 20 wins for New Zealand in singles also has him second all-time, to Onny Parun.

Challenger titles

Doubles: (3)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nielsen, Mark 1977 births Living people New Zealand male tennis players Doping cases in tennis New Zealand sportspeople in doping cases Tennis players from Auckland