The interest of Finland's tennis No.1 Jarkko Nieminen in the men's singles at the Australian Open may have ended abruptly with a leg injury in his first round match, but Nieminen is still in business in the men's doubles, with his partner Rohan Bopanna of India.
The pairing came through their first round encounter against Spain's Marcel Granollers and Santiago Ventura 3–6, 6–4, 6–1 last night. Nieminen's service was broken in the eighth game of the opening set, but thereafter the partnership - playing together for the first time in a tournament - began to gel and eventually they ran out comfortable winners.
Nieminen and Bopanna will next meet the duo of Nicolas Lapentti (Ecuador) and Tommy Robredo (Spain), always assuming Robredo does not withdraw to concentrate on his 4th round men's singles match with Andy Roddick.
