Ousted from singles, Jarkko Nieminen marches on in men's doubles at Australian Open

Jarkko Nieminen

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Finland's tennis No.1 Jarkko Nieminen went out in the second round of the Australian Open in Melbourne, losing last week to Florent Serra of France in five sets.
      However, his involvement in the first Grand Slam tournament of the year did not end there, as he was also entered in the men's doubles with partner Michael Kohlmann of Germany.
     
The unseeded pairing looked to have a rocky road ahead of them as their first opponents were the 4th seeds, Mahesh Bhupathi (India) and Max Mirnyi from Belarus.
      The Finnish-German partnership nevertheless came through in straight sets 6-4, 6-4, and then dismissed the unseeded British duo of Colin Fleming and Ken Skupski in three sets.
      This set up a third round meeting last night against Simone Bolelli and Andreas Seppi of Italy.
      The unseeded Italians took the first set 6-4, but Nieminen and Kohlmann fought back to win the next two sets on the tie-break to progress into the last eight of the competition.
     
Their opponents in the quarter-finals will be Fernando Gonzalez of Chile and Croatian Ivan Ljubicic.
      They are also ranked outside the seeding system, but have already disposed of the 6th and 11th seeds on their way into the last eight.
     
The prize money for the doubles is smaller than that for the men's or women's singles, but by reaching the fourth round the pairing of Nieminen and Kohlmann have already earned a handy pay-cheque of 55,000 Australian dollars between them, almost as much as Nieminen collected for his brief run in the singles. Their success will also be reflected in a tidy haul of ATP ranking points.
     


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Challenger circuit win in Jersey marks end to Jarkko Nieminen´s long dry spell on court (16.11.2009)

Links:
  Australian Open: Jarkko Nieminen

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