Step forward Henri Kontinen, Tennis Grand Slam winner!

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Jarkko Nieminen may have fallen in the third round of the men’s singles at Roland Garros, yet another victim of the human juggernaut that is Rafael Nadal, who allowed him just 5 games (which, incidentally, is one more than he allowed Roger Federer in Sunday’s one-sided final).
      Nieminen and his Swedish playing partner Robert Lindstedt may have progressed no further than the 2nd round of the men’s doubles before going out to the eventual tournament winners Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay and Luis Horna of Peru.
      The Finnish women players may not have been represented at ALL at the French Open.
     
But Finland did not come through the tennis season’s second Grand Slam event empty-handed.
      We have a Grand Slam winner.
      Step forward Henri Kontinen, 17 years, 11 months.
      Kontinen and his Indonesian partner Christopher Rungkat are the new French Open champions in the boys’ doubles, after beating the German/Australian pairing of Jaan-Frederik Brunken and Matt Reid in Saturday’s final by the emphatic score of 6-0, 6-3.
     
The Kontinen/Rungkat duo were playing only their second tournament together, but clearly they have found the right formula: they are currently unbeaten, having comfortably won a junior event in Belgium as a warm-up for the French Open.
      And they started their campaign on the clay in Paris on the best possible note, upsetting the top-seeds Henrique Cunha (Brazil) and Cesar Ramirez (Mexico) in straight sets.
      Thereafter it was full steam ahead all the way to the final. For the second tournament in succession, they did not drop a single set throughout.
     
Despite taking a “bagel” off their opponents in the opening set, they claimed the win was by no means as easy as it looked, and depended greatly on their playing the big points very well.
     
Henri Kontinen was also entered in the boys' singles, but there his run was brought to an abrupt end by Britain’s Marcus Willis in the 1st Round.
      The 17-year-old, who is in his last year in the juniors, has been in an International Tennis Federation group of promising junior players since April, playing tournaments.
      The project runs until the beginning of July and culminates on the grass courts at Wimbledon. He will team up there with Christopher Rungkat once more - and this time they will probably find themselves among the seeds.
      Kontinen plans to take part in some adult professional tour events towards the end of this year, and he will have his first opportunity in Tampere at the end of July, where he will get a wild-card singles entry for an ATP Challenger tournament.
      He is currently ranked 22nd in the world at junior level, and this placing will almost certainly improve substantially on the back of the win at Roland Garros.


Links:
  Henri Kontinen at Roland Garros
  Henri Kontinen, ITF pages

Helsingin Sanomat