Jarkko Nieminen struggles past Julien Benneteau in the opener – Brisbane International 2013
World number 41, Jarkko Nieminen, registered the first upset of the news ATP season by dumping the superior-ranked, Julien Benneteau, in the opening round of Brisbane International on Monday. The 35th ranked Frenchman
was utterly surprised by the aggressive game of Nieminen, who took one hour and 44 minutes to settle the clash in three sets, 6-3, 2-6, 6-1.
It was an evenly contested matchup, with both players battling extremely hard to register their opening victory of the 2013 ATP season. Nieminen played some of his best tennis against the unseeded Frenchman and gave him limited
opportunities to stand tall. He raced through the opening set to attain the upper hand in the match but badly stumbled in the following set to let Benneteau back in the match. However, a belligerent show of sheer dominance from the Finn opponent saw the world
number 35 to fall out of the ATP World Tour 205 event with a breadstick in the decisive set.
The overall match stats clearly showed the level of dominance Nieminen had over his French opponent. Benneteau fired six aces in the match but also coughed the same number of double faults to event out the advantage he could have
had. He secured just 29 out of 48 first serve points in the entire match, whilst his Finn rival clinched 40 out of his 63. Nieminen crafted a total of six break opportunities and converted five of them to his advantage.
Benneteau had his chances in the match but couldn’t cash them in time. He had a poor beginning but the way he made his comeback in the second set was really an impressive one. However, all his impetus was torn to pieces in the
final set when he suffered three cracking breaks of serve to finish on the losing side.
Nieminen’s victory has driven him to the second round of Brisbane International and he will take on the fury of the fourth seeded Ukrainian, Alexandr Dolgopolov, later this week. Being the fourth seeded contender in the tournament
draw, Dolgopolov received a bye to have a direct access to the second round and will play his season-opening match against Nieminen.
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