Nieminen and Kohlmann's Australian Open run ends in sem-final defeat

World No.1 pairing altogether too good

Jarkko Nieminen

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The remarkable run in the men's doubles at the Australian Open by the first-time pairing of Finland's Jarkko Nieminen and his German partner Michael Kohlmann came to an abrupt end last night.
      They went down in straight sets in the semi-final to the world No. 1 duo of Bob and Mike Bryan, the top seeds in the tournament and the Australian Open champions from 2006, 2007, and 2009.
     
The Bryan brothers were not in any mood to repeat two upset defeats at the hands of Nieminen (with different partners on those occasions) on home turf in the United States in 2007 and 2009, and they needed less than an hour to dispose of their unseeded opponents 6-1, 6-4.
      The imperious Americans breezed through the first set in just 17 minutes, and broke Kohlmann's serve again in the third game of the second set.
      Nieminen somehow managed to save six match points on his own service in the ninth game, but this only delayed matters very briefly, as Bob Bryan served out for the match in the next game.
     
The American pair, who have already won seven Grand Slam doubles titles, will now meet the 2nd seeds Daniel Nestor of Canada and Serbia's Nenad Zimonjic in Saturday's final.
      In other words, the seeding committee got it right in the end, although only three of the original 16 seeded pairings survived into the last eight of the competition.
     
For Jarkko Nieminen, the opportunity to make up for a disappointing loss to Florent Serra of France in the second round of the men's singles will have been a very welcome one, and reaching the semi-final stage of a Grand Slam tournament, even if not in his normal singles discipline, is a fine achievement and a first by a Finnish tennis player.
      Nieminen has in fact won an ATP tournament in the doubles before now, taking victory in Mumbai in 2007, when he partnered Robert Lindstedt of Sweden.
      He also has one ATP singles title to his name, from Auckland in 2006. He has been a beaten singles finalist on no fewer than eight occasions, most recently a year ago in Sydney.
      An injury-hit season in 2009 caused Nieminen's singles ranking to drop outside the top 100, and he only secured a place in the Australian Open singles draw after picking up points on the Challenger circuit.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Nieminen/Kohlmann progress into semi-finals after Ljubicic withdrawal (26.1.2010)
  Ousted from singles, Jarkko Nieminen marches on in men´s doubles at Australian Open (25.1.2010)

Links:
  Jarkko Nieminen (Wikipedia)
  Australian Open: Jarkko Nieminen

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