Jarkko Nieminen upsets world No.3 Novak Djokovic to secure final spot in Sydney
Nieminen faces old adversary David Nalbandian in Saturday final
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Finland's tennis #1 Jarkko Nieminen pulled off a huge surprise early on Friday morning Finnish time with a straight-sets semi-final victory at the Medibank International in Sydney, a warm-up tournament for next week's Australian Open, the first Grand Slam event of the year.
Nieminen overcame the world No.3 and top-seeded Novak Djokovic of Serbia 6-4, 7-6 (3) to set up a final against the current world No.11 David Nalbandian of Argentina.
This was one of the finest and possibly most significant wins of Nieminen's career: the left-hander has previously had enormous difficulty in taking out top ten opposition, and has hitherto never beaten anyone ranked as high as this, even though he has for some years been steadily in the top 30 players on the ATP ladder.
”I was able to follow the game-plan I had set for myself in advance. Whenever the chance came, I put pressure on Djokovic's forehand, and it paid off. It was quite windy in the stadium, which made things awkward for both of us. I tried to kick my services in towards his body, and the spin surprised Novak on a few occasions", reported Nieminen.
The unseeded Nieminen had a little good fortune earlier in the tournament.
Wins over Spain's Feliciano Lopez and the big-serving Australian Chris Guccione set up a quarter-final encounter with third-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France, who had narrowly beaten Nieminen a week ago in Brisbane.
However, Tsonga was forced to withdraw from the match with a back injury that could also threaten his chances of playing in the Australian Open next week, and Nieminen got a walkover passage into the semis.
He took full advantage with an impressive performance against Djokovic, who has struggled a little to find the sort of form that brought him a first Grand Slam win in Australia last January. Coincidentally it was Tsonga whom Djokovic beat in that 2008 final in Melbourne.
David Nalbandian overcame Richard Gasquet of France 6–4, 6–3 in the other Sydney semi-final, to set up his eleventh career meeting with Nieminen.
The Finn has won four of their previous ten encounters, but has no misconceptions about the toughness of the opposition.
”To my mind, Nalbandian at his best is definitely a top 5 player, if he is motivated and properly prepared. He has been playing very well indeed here", said Nieminen of the Argentine, who is seeded No. 4 in this tournament.
Jarkko Nieminen has come in for a good deal of stick in recent years owing to his apparent chronic inability to raise his game against top opposition.
He has all too often flattered to deceive, taking an opening set - or even two in a major tournament - off some big-name player with almost insolent ease, only to crumble later.
In his defence, some of last season's performances were hampered by his not being 100% fit, as he suffered from a number of bouts of illness during the year.
Now he seems to have hit his groove. He gave the talented Tsonga a nasty fright in Brisbane, and there was no denying that he outplayed Djokovic. The two men had met twice before, with the Serb winning both encounters.
"A lot of little pieces of the puzzle have fallen into place. Above all I've been fit and well for a while. I kept saying last year that some of my less good days were down to my being under the weather", noted Nieminen.
After Saturday's final, come what may in Sydney, he will have to turn his attention to the Australian Open, where he has a lot of ATP points - 500 of them - to defend from 2008.
Last year he progressed into the last eight in Melbourne, before falling to Rafael Nadal.
On that occasion he was still ranked high enough to be seeded 24th, but his ATP standing has slipped to where he was just outside the top 40 going into the New Year, and now he will have to face the 28th seed Paul-Henri Mathieu of France in the first round.
That man Djokovic is likely to be on the other side of the net again if the Finn can progress into the third round.
"Naturally I'd rather have had to face an unseeded player first up, but on the other hand it could have been a great deal worse", said Nieminen, although his eyes were for the time being only on the final in Sydney.
Nieminen will need to be fully focused. His record in singles finals is not great: he has played in eight of them and won only one tournament title.
A win against Nalbandian would bring a cheque for USD 78,500 and 250 priceless ATP points, and if he loses, Nieminen will still collect more than USD 40,000 and 150 points.
The final in Sydney will be played on Saturday evening - in the morning Finnish time. We will update the page with the result later.
More on this subject:
 Nieminen forced to retire from Australian Open with leg injury
Nieminen defeated in three sets in Sydney final
Links:
Jarkko Nieminen on the ATP site
Medibank International Tournament, Sydney, Australia
Helsingin Sanomat
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