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). On 23 June 2015, he announced his retirement from professional tennis at the end of the season, playing 2015 Stockholm Open as his last event. His wife, Anu Nieminen, is Finland's top-ranked badminton women's single player. In April 2016, it was announced that Nieminen will compete in floorball in season 2016–2017 at Finnish Salibandyliiga 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

2000

2001: Breaking the top 100

2002: Breaking the top 50

2003

2004

2005

2006: First ATP title

2007: 200 wins

2008

2009

2010

2011: 300 wins

2012: 2nd ATP Title

2013

2014

2015: 400 wins and retirement

At Wimbledon, Nieminen, who had already announced his retirement at the end of the season, played Lleyton Hewitt 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 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 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 official match was against his old friend and rival Roger Federer 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, 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 in the top 10, with active players in boldface.

Top 10 wins

Singles

Doubles

Records