Jarkko Nieminen

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.

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 history, defeating Bernard Tomic in just 28 minutes and 20 seconds in the first round of the 2014 Sony Open Tennis. He was ranked inside the Top 75 11 times in 14 years (2001 to 2014).

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 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. 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 at Wimbledon, 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 halfway 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 eventual good medalist Andy Murray in the second round,

2013 Nieminen was the runner-up at the Power Horse Cup in Düsseldorf, losing to Juan Mónaco in the final. 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. At the US Open, Nieminen played his final match at a major, losing to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the first round in straight sets.

Nieminen played his final ATP match on 20 October at the 2015 Stockholm Open, losing 6–3, 6–7, 4–6 to Nicolás 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 match was an exhibition against Roger Federer at the Hartwall Arena in Helsinki on 9 November 2015.

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, 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) LegendGrand 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)Titles by surfaceHard (2–7)Clay (0–4)Grass (0–0)Titles by settingOutdoor (2–6)Indoor (0–5)

Doubles: 9 (5 titles, 4 runner-ups) LegendGrand 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)Titles by surfaceHard (1–4)Clay (4–0)Grass (0–0)Titles by settingOutdoor (5–1)Indoor (0–3)

ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals

Singles: 15 (10–5) Legend (singles)ATP Challenger Tour (10–4)ITF Futures Tour (0–1)Finals by surfaceHard (4–2)Clay (5–3)Grass (0–0)Carpet (1–0)

Doubles: 14 (6–8) Legend (doubles)ATP Challenger Tour (4–6)ITF Futures Tour (2–2)Finals by surfaceHard (2–3)Clay (3–3)Grass (0–0)Carpet (1–2)

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 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 Open Era of tennis.