Nieminen into 3rd round: faces Rafael Nadal today

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Finland's tennis No.1 Jarkko Nieminen achieved something on Thurday that he had not managed since late January and the Australian Open: he won his second successive men's singles match in a tournament.
      He beat Argentine Martin Vassallo Arguello in four sets 7-5, 6-1, 3-6, 7-6(2) to progress to the third round of the French Open at Roland Garros in Paris, and to set up a high-profile match today against the No.2 seed and undisputed world's best player on clay, Rafael Nadal of Spain.
     
Victory on an outside court in Thursday's match was probably at least as satisfying for Nieminen as the chance of a shot against Nadal, since his form over the past several months has been far from what his world ranking (he is still, astonishingly enough, 26th in the world) should have indicated.
      In many respects, the fact that Nieminen has not slipped down the rankings makes his string of earlier defeats even harder to fathom: he was often seeded in tournaments and so did not have to face tough opposition in the early rounds.
     
But now he produced what he earnestly believes was the best tennis of his entire career in the second set against Arguello, with 12 clean winners and two emphatic breaks of service.
      "I'm particularly pleased that I came up so mentally strong in the match", said a delighted Nieminen after progressing into the last 32 of this year's second Grand Slam event.
     
It was not all plain sailing, however. Nieminen committed 36 unforced errors in the match to his opponent's 31, thus continuing the negative balance that was seen in the opener against Marc Lopez of Spain.
      And in the third set he went off the boil and allowed the Argentine back into the match, even to the point of letting go a break of service in the fourth set to leave himself at 2-4 down against a player 80 places lower than himself.
     
Nieminen's first-round game had been postponed and interrupted by rain, and the second match did not escape the weather, either.
      The proceedings were halted for 90 minutes when the clouds opened, with Nieminen 6-5 up in the fourth set.
      "My coach Joakim Nyström and I decided that this match was not going to five sets under any circumstances. And I played very well after the break, just as on Wednesday", enthused Nieminen.
      In fact he took the last seven points in the ensuing tie-break without reply and wrapped matters up in a matter of minutes to the delight of a small but noisy Finnish entourage on Court 5.
     
In his match today against Rafael Nadal, Nieminen will need all that and a good deal more.
      Nadal is practically invincible on the clay surface, and his crushing straight sets win on Thursday against Nicolas Devilder of France marked his 23rd successive victory at Roland Garros, where he has yet to shake hands in defeat.
      Nadal won the title here on his debut in 2005, and again in 2006 and 2007.
      Still, Nieminen has nothing to lose and everything to gain from this rare appearance on the show courts - the player who eventually beats Nadal on his favourite surface will be guaranteed the full attention of the world's sports media.
      "Against Nadal I will have to mix things up and play a very versatile game. Then he won't have an easy time of it. I enjoy the idea of a challenge like this immensely", said Nieminen, who is seeded 26th for the tournament.
     
     
The match is second on the Suzanne Lenglen court after a women's singles game between Serena Williams and Katarina Srebotnik, and will be televised live on YLE. Transmission starts from 12:00 local time on YLE FST5, and shifts to TV2 at 15:00. If the match goes on after 16:50, coverage will switch back to FST5. Eurosport is also covering the French Open, though there is no 100% guarantee that this particular match will be featured.
     


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Nieminen through in four sets to 2nd round at Roland Garros (29.5.2008)

Links:
  Roland Garros: Jarkko Nieminen
  Jarkko Nieminen on the ATP Tennis pages

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