Jarkko Nieminen, who lost to Nicolas Almagro in the first round of the Stockholm Open, 3-6, 7-6 (6), 6-4, will retire this week.
The 34-year-old Finn, who is also playing doubles this week, says he is very pleased about his career as a whole and was thrilled that the Swedish fans came out and supported him. Nieminen is the top Scandanavian man on tour at the moment.
“I've always felt that there was a little Swedish tennis culture in me, not only for the support I get, but all the time that I have spent here I think I have learned a lot,” said Nieminen.
The left-hander has won two singles and five doubles titles. He reached three Grand Slam quarterfinals and in March earned his 400th singles victory. He reached a career-high ranking of No. 13 in 2006 and complied a Davis Cup record of 59 wins and 26 losses.
Nieminen says that while he wished he could have won more titles in singles—he went 2-11 in finals—he played as well as he could.
“You look at the stats and think I get tight in the finals and I would have no problem to say it,” he told TENNIS.com. “I got tight in many matches in my career, but I must say, not in those finals. Maybe one or two where I didn’t play the level I played that week. But I would say, nine, 10 of those, I was just the second best player of that week. There was no drama in that.”
Nieminen will play a special exhibition in three weeks against Roger Federer in Finland to mark his retirement.