Jarkko Kalervo Nieminen (born 23 July 1981) is a Finnish 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. 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 Grand Slam most often refers to: * Grand Slam (tennis), one player or pair winning all four major annual tournaments, or the tournaments themselves Grand Slam or Grand slam may also refer to: Games and sports * Grand slam, winning category te ...

tournaments have been reaching the quarterfinals of the 2005 US Open, the

2006 Wimbledon Championships The 2006 Wimbledon Championships was a tennis tournament played on grass courts at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London in the United Kingdom. It was the 120th edition of the Wimbledon Championships and were held fr ...

, and the

2008 Australian Open The 2008 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts. It was the 96th edition of the Australian Open, and the first Grand Slam event of the year. It took place at the Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia, from 14 throug ...

. Statistically 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 singles event. He is also notable for winning the shortest recorded Masters Tour tennis match in

Open Era The racket sport traditionally named lawn tennis, invented in Birmingham, England now commonly known simply as tennis, is the direct descendant of what is now denoted real tennis or royal tennis, which continues to be played today as a separate sp ...

history, defeating

Bernard Tomic Bernard Tomic (; hr, Bernard Tomić, ; born 21 October 1992) is an Australian professional tennis player whose career-high ranking was world No. 17. As a junior, Tomic enjoyed a successful career in which he won an Orange Bowl title and two ju ...

in just 28 minutes and 20 seconds in the first round of the

2014 Sony Open Tennis The 2014 Sony Open Tennis (also known as 2014 Miami Masters) was a professional men and women's tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts. It was the 30th edition of the Miami Masters, and was part of the Masters 1000 category on the 2014 AT ...

. He was ranked inside the Top 75 11 times in 14 years (2001 to 2014). On 23 June 2015, he announced his retirement from professional

at the end of the season, playing

2015 Stockholm Open The 2015 Stockholm Open (also known as the 2015 If Stockholm Open for sponsorship reasons) was a professional men's tennis tournament played on indoor hard courts. It was the 47th edition of the tournament, and part of the ATP World Tour 250 seri ...

as his last event. His wife,

Anu Nieminen Anu Kristiina Nieminen (born 16 December 1977; née Weckström) is a Finnish badminton player. Born in Helsinki, Nieminen has joined the national team in 1994. She is one of the best badminton players in Finland, having won twelve times National ...

, is Finland's top-ranked

badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per side) and "doubles" (with two players pe ...

women's single player. In April 2016, it was announced that Nieminen will compete in

floorball Floorball is a type of floor hockey with five players and a goalkeeper in each team. Men and women play indoors with sticks and a plastic ball with holes. Matches are played in three twenty-minute periods. The sport of bandy also played a role ...

in season 2016–2017 at Finnish

Salibandyliiga The F-liiga is the top men’s floorball league in Finland. The league was founded as Salibandyn SM-sarja (English: Floorball Finnish Champions-Series) in 1986 by the Finnish Floorball Federation (SSBL). It was renamed to Salibandyliiga for the ...

representing SC Classic.

Junior career

As a junior Nieminen reached as high as No. 9 in the world in 1999 (and No. 20 in doubles), and won the 1999 Jr US Open.

Career highlights

1999

*Defeated

Kristian Pless Kristian Peter Pless (born 9 February 1981) is a former professional male tennis player from Denmark. Tennis career Juniors Pless had an excellent junior career, winning the 1999 Australian Open Boys' Singles (defeated Mikhail Youzhny), and r ...

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 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 ...

debut against Italy, losing to

Andrea Gaudenzi Andrea Gaudenzi (; born 30 July 1973) is an Italian former tennis player and the current chairman of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) since January 2020. Gaudenzi was born in Faenza, Italy, in the province of Ravenna, and turned p ...

2000

*Won his first Davis Cup match, beating

Mikael Tillström Mikael Tillström (born 5 March 1972) is a former tennis player from Sweden, who turned professional in 1991. Career He represented his native country as at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, where he was defeated in the third round by Switzer ...

of Sweden in a

dead-rubber Dead rubber is a term used in sporting parlance to describe a match in a series where the series result has already been decided by earlier matches. The dead rubber match therefore has no effect on the winner and loser of the series, other than the ...

2001: Breaking the top 100

*Became the first Finn to reach an ATP final since

Leo Palin Leo Palin (born 20 October 1956) is a retired professional tennis player from Finland. During his career on the ATP Tour, Palin won one doubles title, and reached one singles and one other doubles final. He reached career-high rankings of No. 92 ...

in 1981, beating Pless,

Younes El Aynaoui Younes El Aynaoui ( ar, يونس العيناوي) (born 12 September 1971) is a former professional tennis player from Morocco. He is a five-time singles winner on the ATP Tour and reached his career-high singles ranking of world No. 14 in Mar ...

, defending champion

Thomas Johansson Karl Thomas Conny Johansson (; born 24 March 1975) is a Swedish retired professional tennis player and coach. He reached a career-high Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) world No. 7 singles ranking on 10 May 2002. His career highlights i ...

and three-time winner

Thomas Enqvist Thomas Karl Johan Enqvist (born 13 March 1974) is a Swedish former professional tennis player. He reached the final of the 1999 Australian Open – Men's singles, 1999 Australian Open and won a total of 19 singles titles, including three ATP Tou ...

, before losing to

Sjeng Schalken Sjeng Schalken (; born 8 September 1976) is a former professional tennis player from the Netherlands. Playing style A right-handed baseliner with a single-handed backhand, Schalken's game is characterised by his consistency of both wings and his ...

in five sets in

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

. *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 Estoril () is a town in the Municipality of Cascais, Portugal, on the Portuguese Riviera. It is a tourist destination, with luxury hotels, beaches, and the Casino Estoril. It has been home to numerous royal families and celebrities, and has host ...

and

Majorca Mallorca, or Majorca, is the largest island in the Balearic Islands, which are part of Spain and located in the Mediterranean. The capital of the island, Palma, is also the capital of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. The Bal ...

, losing to

David Nalbandian David Pablo Nalbandian (; born 1 January 1982) is an Argentine retired professional tennis player who played on the ATP Tour from 2000 until his retirement in 2013. He reached the highest ranking in singles of world No. 3 in March 2006. Nalban ...

and

Gastón Gaudio Gastón Norberto Gaudio (; born 9 December 1978) is an Argentine retired tennis player. He won eight singles titles and achieved a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 5 in April 2005. Gaudio's most significant title win came at the 2004 ...

, respectively. *Became the first Finnish player to end the season in the top 50.

2003

*Reached his fourth career ATP final in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the States of Germany, German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the List of cities in Germany by popu ...

, losing to

Roger Federer Roger Federer (; born 8 August 1981) is a Swiss former professional tennis player. He was ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players#Weeks at No. 1, world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 310 weeks, in ...

. *Advanced to the fourth round at the

2003 French Open The 2003 French Open was the second Grand Slam event of 2003 and the 107th edition of the French Open. It took place at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris, France, from May 26 through June 8, 2003. Both Albert Costa and Serena Williams were unsucce ...

, losing to

Fernando González Fernando Francisco González Ciuffardi (; born 29 July 1980) is a Chilean former professional tennis player. During his career he made it to at least the quarterfinals of all four Grand Slam tournaments. He played his only major final at the ...

. *Achieved Finland's first

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * ...

seeding (30) *Was at best ranked World No. 27, a career-high until 2006.

2004

*Represented Finland at the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics ( el, Θερινοί Ολυμπιακοί Αγώνες 2004, ), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad ( el, Αγώνες της 28ης Ολυμπιάδας, ) and also known as Athens 2004 ( el, Αθήνα 2004), ...

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

, losing to

Max Mirnyi Maksim "Max" Mikalaevich Mirnyi ( be, Максім Мікалаевіч Мірны, ; russian: Максим Николаевич Мирный, ; born 6 July 1977) is a Belarusian former professional tennis player. Mirnyi became a doubles speci ...

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 Andre Kirk Agassi ( ; born April 29, 1970) is an American former world No. 1 tennis player. He is an eight-time major champion and an Olympic gold medalist, as well as a runner-up in seven other majors. Agassi is the second of five men to ach ...

in a first round five-setter at the

2005 French Open The 2005 French Open was the 109th edition of the tournament. On the men's side, Rafael Nadal, seeded fourth at his first French Open, was a strong favorite to win the singles title after winning the Monte Carlo and Rome Masters. Guillermo Coria ...

. *Was defeated in five sets by

Lleyton Hewitt Lleyton Glynn Hewitt (born 24 February 1981) is an Australian former world No. 1 tennis player. He is the most recent Australian man to win a major singles title, with two at the 2001 US Open and 2002 Wimbledon Championships. In November 200 ...

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 Mario Ančić (; born 30 March 1984) is a Croatian former professional tennis player who currently works as a private equity vice president in New York City. He won three singles titles and five doubles titles. His career-high singles ranking c ...

in the final in

Auckland Auckland (pronounced ) ( mi, Tāmaki Makaurau) is a large metropolitan city in the North Island of New Zealand. The List of New Zealand urban areas by population, most populous urban area in the country and the List of cities in Oceania by po ...

. *Recorded his career-best

ATP Masters Series The ATP Masters 1000 tournaments (previously known as ATP Masters Series) is an annual series of nine tennis tournaments featuring the top-ranked players on the ATP Tour. The series' events have been held in Europe and North America since the ...

performance by reaching the quarterfinals of the

Indian Wells Masters The Indian Wells Masters, also known as the Indian Wells Open and BNP Paribas Open is an annual tennis tournament usually held in early- and mid-March at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in Indian Wells, California, United States. The owner is La ...

, but lost to

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 ...

. *Broke into the top 20 for the first time in his career in April. *Reached the quarterfinals of the

, but lost to World No. 2

Rafael Nadal Rafael Nadal Parera (, ; born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish professional tennis player. He is currently ranked world No. 2 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). He has been ranked List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis ...

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 The Canadian Open (french: Tournoi de tennis du Canada), also known as the Canada Masters, and currently branded as the National Bank Open presented by Rogers for sponsorship reasons, is an annual tennis tournament held in Ontario and Quebec. T ...

, losing to

Andy Murray Sir Andrew Barron Murray (born 15 May 1987) is a British professional tennis player from Scotland. He was ranked world No. 1 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for 41 weeks, and finished as the year-end No. 1 in 2016. Murray h ...

. *Reached his sixth career ATP final in Stockholm, losing to James Blake. *Finished the season by reaching the quarterfinals of the

Paris Masters The Paris Masters is an annual tennis tournament for male professional players held in Paris, France. It is played indoors at the AccorHotels Arena, in the neighborhood of Bercy. The event is part of the ATP Tour Masters 1000 on the Association o ...

, where he lost to

Tommy Robredo Tomás Robredo Garcés, known as Tommy Robredo (, ; born 1 May 1982), is a Spanish former professional tennis player. His career-high singles ranking was world No. 5, which he reached in August 2006 as a result of winning the Hamburg Masters ea ...

2007: 200 wins

*Won his first ATP doubles title in September, paired with

Robert Lindstedt Robert Lindstedt (born 19 March 1977) is a Swedish former professional tennis player who specialized in doubles. He turned professional in 1998, and reached a career-high doubles ranking of world No. 3 in May 2013. Lindstedt won his first Grand ...

. They beat

Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi ( Punjabi, ; born 17 Mar 1980) is a Pakistani professional tennis player who specialises in doubles. He is the only Pakistani player ever to reach a Grand Slam final, having done so in both men's and mixed doubles at the ...

and

Rohan Bopanna Rohan Bopanna ( ; born 4 March 1980) is an Indian professional tennis player. His tennis singles, singles career-high ranking was world No. 213 in 2007 and his career-high ranking in doubles was world No. 3 on 22 July 2013. He has been a member ...

in Mumbai, India on hard courts. *His best singles performance in 2007 came at

Davidoff Swiss Indoors The Swiss Indoors is a professional men's tennis tournament played on indoor hard courts at the St. Jakobshalle in Basel, Switzerland. History The historical precursor event to this tournament was called the Swiss International Covered Courts th ...

, where he was beaten in the finals by World No. 1

in straight sets, 6–3, 6–4. En route to the finals, he had beaten

Robby Ginepri Robert Louis Ginepri ( ; born October 7, 1982) is a retired American professional tennis player. He won three ATP singles titles in his career and achieved a career-high ranking of World No. 15 in December 2005. Ginepri's best Grand Slam result ...

Guillermo Cañas Guillermo Ignacio Cañas (; born November 25, 1977), often referred to as Willy Cañas, is a retired tennis player from Argentina. He was born in Buenos Aires and named after Argentine tennis star Guillermo Vilas. Cañas won the 2002 Canada Maste ...

, World No. 8

, and

Marcos Baghdatis Marcos Baghdatis ( el, Μάρκος Παγδατής, ar, ماركوس بغداتيس; ; born 17 June 1985) is a Cypriot former professional tennis player. He was the runner-up at the 2006 Australian Open and a semifinalist at the 2006 Wimble ...

2008

*Lost to

Michaël Llodra Michaël Llodra (; born 18 May 1980) is a French former professional tennis player. He was a successful doubles player with three Grand Slam championships and an Olympic silver medal, and has also had success in singles, winning five career titl ...

in the final at the Adelaide International, 3–6, 4–6. *Made the quarter-finals at the Australian Open, losing in straight sets to

. *Represented Finland at the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...

in Beijing, losing to Swede

in the first round.

2009

*Defeated top seed

Novak Djokovic Novak Djokovic ( sr-Cyrl, Новак Ђоковић, translit=Novak Đoković, ; born 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player. He has been ranked world No. 1 for a record total 373 weeks, and has finished as the year-end No. 1 ...

in the 2009 Medibank International semifinal, 6–4, 7–6. He lost to

in the final, 4–6, 7–6, 2–6. *Withdrew from the

2009 Australian Open The 2009 Australian Open was a tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts. It was the 97th edition of the Australian Open, and the first Grand Slam event of the year. It took place at the Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Australia, from 19 Janua ...

halfway through his first-round clash with 28th seed

Paul-Henri Mathieu Paul-Henri Mathieu (; born 12 January 1982) is a French former professional tennis player. He won four singles titles on the ATP Tour. His best singles performance in an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament was reaching the semifinals of the ...

. *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 Stéphane Robert (; born 17 May 1980) is a professional French tennis player. Career Coach From 2001 to March 2010, Ronan Lafaix was Robert's coach. In May 2016, Lafaix, who is 12 years older than Robert, became Robert's coach for the second ...

in the ATP Challenger tournament final in Jersey, United Kingdom in November.

2010

*Defeated

Nick Lindahl Nick Lindahl (born 31 July 1988) is a former Australian tennis player. As a junior, he reached the final of the Boys' Singles at the 2006 Australian Open. He struggled to transition onto the men's circuit, and was later found guilty of match-fi ...

in the first round of the Australian Open, before losing a tight five-set match to

Florent Serra Florent Lucien Serra (born 28 February 1981) is a French retired professional tennis player. A right-hander, he won two ATP titles during his career and achieved a career-high singles ranking of World No. 36 in June 2006. Career Early life and ...

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 Michael Kohlmann (born 11 January 1974) is a retired professional tennis player from Germany. Primarily a doubles specialist, he has won five ATP Tour doubles titles in his career. In March 2007, he reached his career-high doubles ranking of W ...

, losing to the top seeds

Bob Bryan Robert Charles Bryan (born April 29, 1978) is an American former doubles world No. 1 tennis player. He has won twenty-three Grand Slam titles: 16 in men's doubles and 7 in mixed doubles. He turned professional in 1998. With his twin ...

and

Mike Bryan Michael Carl Bryan (born April 29, 1978) is an American former doubles world No. 1 tennis player. With his twin brother Bob, he was the world's top doubles player for more than nine years, first achieving the top ranking in Septemb ...

. *Reached his first semifinal of the season at the

Delray Beach International Tennis Championships The Delray Beach Open is an ATP World Tour 250 series men's professional tennis tournament held each year in Delray Beach, Florida, United States, and played on hard courts. It was previously known as America's Red Clay Championships, Citrix Ten ...

, beating

Paolo Lorenzi Paolo Lorenzi (; born 15 December 1981) is an Italian former professional tennis player. Lorenzi was coached by Claudio Galoppini. Tennis career Lorenzi reached his first ATP World Tour final at the age of 32, in São Paulo. Here, at the 2014 B ...

, 6–3, 6–4, in the first round,

Evgeny Korolev Evgeny Evgenyevich Korolev ( rus, Евге́ний Евге́ньевич Королёв; born 14 February 1988) is a retired Russian tennis player and the cousin of former Russian player Anna Kournikova. He began playing tennis at age four wi ...

, 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 Benjamin Becker (born 16 June 1981) is a German retired professional tennis player who is known for defeating former world No. 1 Andre Agassi in the third round at the 2006 US Open in what was Agassi's last match as a professional player. Bec ...

in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, he lost against

Ernests Gulbis Ernests Gulbis (, born 30 August 1988, nicknamed "Lord", "The Gull" or "Ernie") is a Latvian professional tennis player. In 2008, Gulbis won his first ATP Tour doubles title at the U.S. Men's Clay Court Championships, teaming with Rainer Schütt ...

of Latvia, who ended up winning the tournament against

Ivo Karlović Ivo Karlović (; born 28 February 1979) is a former Croatian professional tennis player. His height of 211 cm (6 ft 11 in) makes him the joint tallest ranked tennis player in history, along with Reilly Opelka. He has won eight ATP sin ...

in the final. *Won his second doubles title with Swede

Johan Brunström Johan Brunström (born 3 April 1980) is a professional Swedish tennis player. His highest ATP doubles ranking is no. 31, which he reached on 22 March 2010. His career high in singles is no. 377, which he reached on 24 September 2007. He made hi ...

in Gstaad, Switzerland on clay courts. *Lost to

Guillermo García López Guillermo García López (, born 4 June 1983) is a Spanish former professional tennis player. He has won five singles titles and achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 23 in February 2011. As of 2021, he has collected thirteen w ...

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 Gaël Sébastien Monfils (; born 1 September 1986) is a French professional tennis player. He has been ATP rankings, ranked as high as world No. 6 in singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which he achieved in November 2016. H ...

2012: 2nd ATP Title

*Nieminen won the

Sydney International The Sydney International (formerly known as the Championship of New South Wales and New South Wales Open, with various title sponsors), formerly sponsored as the Apia International Sydney from 2012 to 2017, is a professional tennis tournament i ...

for his second career title against

Julien Benneteau Julien Henry Guy Benneteau-Desgrois (; born 20 December 1981) is a French retired professional tennis player. His career-high singles ranking is ATP world no. 25, which he reached in November 2014. He formerly resided in Boulogne-Billancourt and ...

. He was a finalist in doubles in the same tournament with

Matthew Ebden Matthew Ebden (born 26 November 1987) is an Australian professional tennis player. He is a two-time Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Slam champion, having won the 2022 Wimbledon Championships – Men's doubles, 2022 Wimbledon Championships in men's ...

against

and

. *He was a quarterfinalist at the

Open Sud de France The Open Sud de France (formerly known as the Grand Prix de Tennis de Lyon) is a professional tennis tournament played on indoor hard courts. It is currently part of the ATP Tour 250 series of the ATP Tour. It was held annually at the Palais des ...

and in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Rotte'') is the second largest city and municipality in the Netherlands. It is in the province of South Holland, part of the North Sea mouth of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta, via the ''"N ...

. *In the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

, 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 Power most often refers to: * Power (physics), meaning "rate of doing work" ** Engine power, the power put out by an engine ** Electric power * Power (social and political), the ability to influence people or events ** Abusive power Power may ...

in Düsseldorf, beating no. 14

Tommy Haas Thomas Mario Haas (; born 3 April 1978) is a German former professional tennis player. He competed on the ATP Tour from 1996 to 2017. After breaking into the world top 100 in 1997, and reaching a career-high singles ranking of world No. 2 in May ...

. * Nieminen reached a Masters quarterfinal for the first time since 2006 after beating no. 7

Juan Martín del Potro Juan Martín del Potro () (born 23 September 1988) is an Argentine inactive professional tennis player. Del Potro's biggest achievement is a major title: the 2009 US Open, where he defeated Rafael Nadal in the semifinals and the five-time defen ...

in the third round of the

Monte-Carlo Masters The Monte-Carlo Masters is an annual tennis tournament for male professional players held in Roquebrune-Cap-Martin, France, a commune that borders on Monaco. The event is part of the ATP Tour Masters 1000 on the Association of Tennis Professiona ...

. He also reached the third round in Indian Wells and Miami. *Nieminen was a quarterfinalist at the

Valencia Open 500 The Valencia Open, formerly known as Open de Tenis Comunidad Valenciana, was a professional men's tennis tournament played in Valencia, Spain. It was part of the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) Tour. The tournament was first played in ...

, the Japan Open, and the

. *He was semifinalist at the

, losing to

Richard Gasquet Richard Gabriel Cyr Gasquet (; born 18 June 1986) is a French professional tennis player. His career-high ATP singles ranking is world No. 7, attained on 9 July 2007. He has won a total of 15 singles titles on the ATP Tour. His best performances ...

. *He won the Helsinki Challenger. *He won his third doubles title at the

BMW Open The Bavarian International Tennis Championships (german: Internationale Tennis-Meisterschaften von Bayern, known since 1990 by its sponsored name BMW Open) is a men's tennis tournament held at the MTTC Iphitos in Munich, Germany. Held since 1900, ...

with

Dmitry Tursunov Dmitry Igorevich Tursunov (; born 12 December 1982) is a retired Russian tennis player and current tennis coach. At age 12 he moved to the United States to train and further his prospects of becoming a professional player. His career-high singl ...

2014

* Nieminen started the year 13th time in a row in the top 100. * He reached the

and Malaysian Open semifinals and the third round of the

and the Madrid Masters. * He played the shortest recorded Masters tennis match, defeating

at the

Miami Masters The Miami Open (also known as the Miami Masters, and currently branded as the Miami Open presented by Itaú for sponsorship reasons) is a tennis tournament held at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida. It is part of the men's ATP Tour Mas ...

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 John Robert Isner (born April 26, 1985) is an American professional tennis player. He has been ranked as high as world No. 8 in singles and No. 14 in doubles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP). Considered one of the best servers e ...

. * He won his fourth doubles title at the Bet-at-home Cup Kitzbühel, the first by an all-Finnish team, with

Henri Kontinen Henri Kontinen (; born 19 June 1990) is an inactive Finnish professional tennis player who is a former List of ATP number 1 ranked doubles tennis players, world No. 1 in doubles. After being forced to end his singles career at a young age due to ...

2015: 400 wins and retirement

At Wimbledon, Nieminen, who had already announced his retirement at the end of the season, played

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 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (; born 17 April 1985) is a French former professional tennis player. He was ranked as high as world No. 5 by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which he achieved in February 2012. Tsonga won 18 singles titles on th ...

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 20 October at the

, losing 6–3, 6–7, 4–6 to

Nicolás Almagro Nicolás Almagro Sánchez (; born 21 August 1985 in Murcia, Spain) is a Spanish former professional tennis player. He reached the quarterfinals of the French Open in 2008, 2010 and 2012 (losing each time to Rafael Nadal, the eventual ch ...

. 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 Robin Bo Carl Söderling (; born 14 August 1984) is a Swedish former professional tennis player. He reached a career-high Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) world No. 4 singles ranking on 15 November 2010. His career highlights include rea ...

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

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 with a victory over

Courtney John Lock Courtney John Lock (born 18 October 1996) is a Zimbabwean tennis player. Lock has a career high ATP singles ranking of 1,227 achieved on 9 December 2019. He also has a career high ATP doubles ranking of 303 achieved on 28 October 2019. Lock re ...

, making him the first player to win by such a scoreline at any tournament since 2011, and one of two players to accomplish the feat on that day ( Emilio Gómez of Ecuador earned a triple-bagel victory over Adam Hornby of Barbados at Davis Cup competition elsewhere).

ATP career finals

Singles: 13 (2 titles, 11 runner-ups)

Doubles: 9 (5 titles, 4 runner-ups)

ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals

Singles: 15 (10–5)

Doubles: 14 (6–8)

Junior Grand Slam finals

Singles: 1 (1 title)

Doubles: 1 (1 runner-up)

Performance timelines

Singles

Doubles

Best Grand Slam results details

Record against top 10 players

Nieminen's record against those who have been

ranked A ranking is a relationship between a set of items such that, for any two items, the first is either "ranked higher than", "ranked lower than" or "ranked equal to" the second. In mathematics, this is known as a weak order or total preorder of ...

in the top 10, with active players in boldface.

Top 10 wins

Singles

*He has a record against players who were, at the time the match was played, ranked in the top 10.

Doubles

*He has a record against players who were, at the time the match was played, ranked in the top 10.

Records

* These records were attained in the

of tennis.

References

External links

Jarkko Nieminen's official website
* * *
Nieminen World ranking history
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nieminen, Jarkko 1981 births Living people Finnish male tennis players Olympic tennis players of Finland People from Masku Tennis players at the 2004 Summer Olympics Tennis players at the 2008 Summer Olympics Tennis players at the 2012 Summer Olympics US Open (tennis) junior champions Grand Slam (tennis) champions in boys' singles Sportspeople from Southwest Finland