Jarkko Nieminen

Junior career

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.
• Achieved Finland's first Wimbledon seeding
• 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 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 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

2016: Comeback at the Davis Cup

ATP career finals

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

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Opponent	Score
Loss	0–1	2001 If Stockholm Open – Singles|	Stockholm Open, Sweden	International	Hard	Sjeng Schalken	6–3, 3–6, 3–6, 6–4, 3–6
Loss	0–2	2002 Estoril Open – Men's Singles|	Estoril Open, Portugal	International	Clay	David Nalbandian	4–6, 6–7
Loss	0–3	2002 Majorca Open – Singles|	Majorca Open, Spain	International	Clay	Gastón Gaudio	2–6, 3–6
Loss	0–4	2003 BMW Open – Singles|	Bavarian Championships, Germany	International	Clay	Roger Federer	1–6, 4–6
Win	1–4	2006 Heineken Open – Singles|	Auckland Open, New Zealand	International	Hard	Mario Ančić	6–2, 6–2
Loss	1–5	2006 If Stockholm Open – Singles|	Stockholm Open, Sweden	International	Hard	James Blake	4–6, 2–6
Loss	1–6	2007 Davidoff Swiss Indoors – Singles|	Swiss Indoors, Switzerland	International	Hard	Roger Federer	3–6, 4–6
Loss	1–7	2008 Next Generation Adelaide International – Singles|	Adelaide International, Australia	International	Hard	Michaël Llodra	3–6, 4–6
Loss	1–8	2009 Medibank International Sydney – Men's Singles|	Sydney International, Australia	250 Series	Hard	David Nalbandian	3–6, 7–6, 2–6
Loss	1–9	2010 PTT Thailand Open – Singles|	Thailand Open, Thailand	250 Series	Hard	Guillermo García-López	4–6, 6–3, 4–6
Loss	1–10	2011 If Stockholm Open – Singles|	Stockholm Open, Sweden	250 Series	Hard	Gaël Monfils	5–7, 6–3, 2–6
Win	2–10	2012 Apia International Sydney – Men's Singles|	Sydney International, Australia	250 Series	Hard	Julien Benneteau	6–2, 7–5
Loss	2–11	2013 Power Horse Cup – Singles|	Düsseldorf Open, Germany	250 Series	Clay	Juan Mónaco	4–6, 3–6

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

Result	W–L	Date	Tournament	Tier	Surface	Partner	Opponents	Score
Loss	0–1	2003 Thailand Open – Doubles|	Thailand Open, Thailand	International	Hard	Andrew Kratzmann	Jonathan Erlich Andy Ram	3–6, 6–7
Win	1–1	2007 Kingfisher Airlines Tennis Open – Doubles|	Mumbai Open, India	International	Hard	Robert Lindstedt	Rohan Bopanna Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi	7–6, 7–6
Loss	1–2	2009 SAP Open – Doubles|	Pacific Coast Championships, US	250 Series	Hard	Rohan Bopanna	Tommy Haas Radek Štěpánek	2–6, 3–6
Win	2–2	2010 Allianz Suisse Open Gstaad – Doubles|	Swiss Open, Switzerland	250 Series	Clay	Johan Brunström	Marcelo Melo Bruno Soares	6–3, 6–7,
Loss	2–3	2010 If Stockholm Open – Doubles|	Stockholm Open, Sweden	250 Series	Hard	Johan Brunström	Eric Butorac Jean-Julien Rojer	3–6, 4–6
Loss	2–4	2012 Apia International Sydney – Men's Doubles|	Sydney International, Australia	250 Series	Hard	Matthew Ebden	Bob Bryan Mike Bryan	1–6, 4–6
Win	3–4	2013 BMW Open – Doubles|	Bavarian Championships, Germany	250 Series	Clay	Dmitry Tursunov	Marcos Baghdatis Eric Butorac	6–1, 6–4
Win	4–4	2014 Bet-at-home Cup Kitzbühel – Doubles|	Austrian Open Kitzbühel, Austria	250 Series	Clay	Henri Kontinen	Daniele Bracciali Andrey Golubev	6–1, 6–4
Win	5–4	2015 Argentina Open – Doubles|	Argentina Open, Argentina	250 Series	Clay	André Sá	Pablo Andújar Oliver Marach	4–6, 6–4,

Singles performance timeline

Doubles performance timeline

Top 10 wins

Records

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