Henri Laaksonen through to last eight in boys' singles in Paris

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Finland's tennis No.1 Jarkko Nieminen, currently nursing a wrist injury, may not have been involved in the French Open at Roland Garros in Paris, but the country does have one representative on court, and he is doing very nicely so far.
      Henri Laaksonen, 17, is in the boys' singles tournament, and today [Wednesday] he progressed into the last eight at the expense of Renzo Olivo of Argentina. The Finn came through in straight sets, 6-3, 6-0 in under an hour on court.
     
The unseeded Laaksonen took out the French hopeful Antoine Escoffier 7-5, 6-4 in the first round, and then claimed the useful scalp of 4th-seeded Shuichi Sekiguchi of Japan, winning 4-6, 6-0, 6-3.
     
He is now into the quarter-finals, and with the boys' tournament thus far having provided a nasty jolt for the fancied players - in the top half of the draw where Laaksonen is playing the seeds have been all but wiped out - there is every chance he could go further.
      The next opponent will be either 12th-seed David Souto of Venezuela or Filip Horansky of Slovakia. Their 3rd-round match will be played later today.
      Laaksonen, who was ranked 49th on the world junior singles lists before the French Open, was also entered for the boys' doubles, but he and his partner Andrei Vasilevski of Belarus fell at the first hurdle.
     


Links:
  Roland Garros - Henri Laaksonen
  Henri Laaksonen - Profile on the ITF site

Helsingin Sanomat