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Jarkko Nieminen

Country	Finland
Residence	Masku, Finland
Date of birth	July 23, 1981 (1981-07-23) (age 28)
Place of birth	Masku, Finland
Height	1.85 m (6 ft 1 in)
Weight	78 kg (170 lb; 12.3 st)
Turned pro	2000
Plays	Left-handed; two-handed backhand
Career prize money	$ 4,450,685
Singles
Career record	263–203
Career titles	1
Highest ranking	No. 13 (July 10, 2006)
Current ranking	No. 85 (March 8, 2010)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open	QF (2008)
French Open	4th (2003)
Wimbledon	QF (2006)
US Open	QF (2005)
Doubles
Career record	99–121
Career titles	1
Highest ranking	No. 42 (January 28, 2008)
Australian Open	SF (2010)
French Open	2R (2003, 2008)
Wimbledon	2R (2007)
US Open	QF (2008)
Last updated on: March 8, 2010.

Jarkko Nieminen (born July 23, 1981 in Masku, Finland) is a professional tennis player from Finland.

His highest ranking is 13th which was archived on July 10, 2006. He has won one ATP singles title and one doubles title in his career so far. His best performances in Grand Slam tournaments have been reaching the quarter-finals of the 2005 U.S. Open, 2006 Wimbledon Championships, and the 2008 Australian Open.

Arguably Finland's best ever player, Nieminen is the highest ranked Finn ever, and is also the first and so far only Finnish player to have won an ATP singles title and to have reached the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam event.

His wife, Anu Nieminen is currently Finland's top ranked badminton women's single player as her husband is in men's tennis.

Career Highlights

1999

• Defeated Kristian Pless of Denmark to win his first junior Grand Slam, the U.S. Open.
• Finished the year at No. 9 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

• 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 4 titles.
• Finished the year in the Top 100 for the first time.

2002

• 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 quarter-finals of the 2005 U.S. Open, having become the first Finn to reach a Grand Slam quarter-final.

2006

• 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 quarter-finals 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 quarter-finals of the 2006 Wimbledon Championships, but lost to World No. 2 Rafael Nadal in three straight sets.
• Broke into the Top 15 for the first time in his career in July after his 2006 Wimbledon success.
• Reached the quarter-finals 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 quarter-finals of the Paris Masters where he lost to Tommy Robredo.

2007

• Won his first ATP doubles title in September, paired with Robert Lindstedt they beat Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and Rohan Bopanna in Mumbai
• 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. On route to the finals he had beaten Robby Ginepri, Guillermo Cañas, World no. 8 Fernando González and Marcos Baghdatis.

2008

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

2009

• Defeated top seed Novak Djokovic in the 2009 Medibank International semifinal 6-4 7-6(3). He lost to CDavid Nalbandian]] in the final 6-4 6-7 6-2.
• Withdrew from the 2009 Australian Open half-way through his first round clash with 28th seed, Paul-Henri Mathieu.
• To undergo surgery for wrist injury and to be sidelined for three months, thus missing out on Roland Garros.
• Returned to professional tennis at the New Haven tournament in the US in August.
• Defeated French 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 5-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 semi-finals with partner Michael Kohlmann, losing to the No.1 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 No. 3 seed Benjamin Becker of Germany in the Quarterfinals. In the semifinal lost against Ernests Gulbis of Latvia, who ended up winning the tournament against Ivo Karlović in the final.

Singles finals (16)

Wins (1)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the Final	Score in the Final
1.	January 9, 2006	Auckland, New Zealand	Hard	Mario Ančić	6–2, 6–2

Runner-ups (8)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score in the Final
1.	October 29, 2001	Stockholm, Sweden	Hard	Sjeng Schalken	6–3, 3–6, 3–6, 6–4, 3–6
2.	April 15, 2002	Estoril, Portugal	Clay	David Nalbandian	4–6, 6–7(5)
3.	May 6, 2002	Majorca, Spain	Clay	Gastón Gaudio	2–6, 3–6
4.	May 5, 2003	Munich, Germany	Clay	Roger Federer	1–6, 4–6
5.	October 16, 2006	Stockholm, Sweden	Hard	James Blake	4–6, 2–6
6.	October 29, 2007	Basel, Switzerland	Hard	Roger Federer	3–6, 4–6
7.	January 6, 2008	Adelaide, Australia	Hard	Michaël Llodra	3–6, 4–6
8.	January 17, 2009	Sydney, Australia	Hard	David Nalbandian	3–6, 7–6, 2–6

Doubles finals (3)

Win (1)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents in the final	Score
1.	September 24, 2007	Mumbai, India	Hard	Robert Lindstedt	Rohan Bopanna Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi	7–6(3) 7–6(5)

Runner-up (2)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents in the final	Score
1.	September 29, 2003	Bangkok, Thailand	Hard	Andrew Kratzmann	Jonathan Erlich Andy Ram	3–6, 6–7(4)
2.	February 15, 2009	San Jose, United States	Hard (i)	Rohan Bopanna	Tommy Haas Radek Štěpánek	2–6, 3–6

Singles Performance Timeline

External links and sources

• Jarkko Nieminen's official website
• Jarkko Nieminen at the Association of Tennis Professionals
• Davis Cup profile
• Player of the Day-2005 U.S. Open
• Nieminen Recent Match Results
• Nieminen World Ranking History
• Finnish Men Recent Match Results