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Nieminen overcomes Sijsling
Sometimes brilliant, sometimes clumsy. Igor Sijsling played amazing points again Nieminen, but spiced it up with unnecessary errors at crucial times. Consistency is the achilles heel for the Amsterdam native.
Sijsling, who won a Challenger in Quimper last week, came out short against the left-handed win, and lost 1-6, 7-6, 5-7 in two hours.
There were plenty of excuses for Sijsling, but they don´t count in sports. Maybe he was tired after a long week in Quimper, maybe he had not adjusted to the balls, court and bigger venue, and Nieminen is not the type of player he will often bump into on the Challenger Tour.
Nieminen is on a revival after a streak of injuries. He is back within the top 50, but did not play all matches this weekend in Davis Cup due to a wrist injury. A huge loss for Finland, as Nieminen is a very solid player, who gives nothing away.
For the aggressive Sijsling, who didn´t play Davis Cup, it was hard in the first set. He had trouble finding the openings in Nieminen´s defence, though he had better luck in the second. A break down, Sijsling fought back anbd grabbed the set 7-6, to force a decider.
Sijsling lost his serve early on and went down 3-0. After treatment on court he came back and tied the match at 4-4. But at 5-6 he made a very bad timed drop shot who gave Nieminen match point. A missed backhand sealed the deal for the Finn. "I didn´t play bad, but there are still things I need to work on", Sijsling said after the match.
