Otto Virtanen made a bold decision at the end of elementary school – recently one of his long-term dreams came true | Sport

Otto Virtanen recently became only the seventh Finnish man in the top 100 in the world tennis rankings.

Otto Virtanen prepares for the Tali tennis tournament by hitting the ball with Finland’s all-time tennis player Jarkko Nieminen with. A long season is behind us, the 30th tournament of the season is about to start.

Virtanen’s playing and travel fatigue is eased by the fact that the tennis year has been very successful overall.

The Hyvinkää-based player’s world ranking has been around 170 since the beginning of the season. At the end of October, three tournament wins on the challenger tour and otherwise good performances during the season put him in the top 100 for the first time in the ATP ranking.

– I’ve certainly dreamed of a professional career since I was a child. Now, after reaching such a destination, the top100 was broken.

Breaking into the top 100 on the ranking list guarantees access to the main series in grand slam tournaments. The financial benefit is also significant. For example, appearing in the first round of the Australian Open generates a good 70,000 dollars.

– If you play in grand slam tournaments all year long, they become a good-sized pot. You can use them to cover quite a lot of the expenses of the competition year. The main series place makes the gig in Australia easier when you don’t have to stress so much about expenses. It’s not the cheapest to fly your own team there and spend a month there, says Virtanen, who earned more than 450,000 euros in prize money during the 2024 season.

A tough sacrifice

Otto Virtanen mentions on the edge of the green-hued main court of the Tali tennis hall that he has worked hard for success on and off the court.

In fact, 23-year-old Virtanen has been working hard for years just for tennis. He left school after primary school and since then has only aimed for the top of the sport.

– I haven’t thought before whether it was worth it (leaving school). Sometimes after a bad match, I get bad feelings like, kidding, why am I playing this sport? It’s over in an hour, and then he’s already waiting for next week to get on the field.

Virtanen’s goal for the near future is to reach 70–75 in the world rankings.

That would open the doors to the main draw of almost every ATP tournament. The planning and construction of the season would become even easier, and especially it would bring security for travel.

Hairball in Talis also in the stands

Finland’s current number one player will open the Tali challenger tour tournament on Wednesday against the German Rudolf Molleker against.

Originally, the match was supposed to be on the program already on Tuesday, but at Virtanen’s wish, the match was moved to the next day due to health reasons.

– We’re all doing that I’m in full swing on Wednesday. Thank you for the flexibility towards the tournament organizer, Virtanen summed up the Tennis Association in the bulletin.

The long season takes its toll. However, from Virtanen’s point of view, the scheme of the tournament in Talis is such that, if successful, the Finnish hope has a chance to go far.

In the home tournament, Virtanen also gets encouragement from a surprising source, when his own hairball follows the games in the stands in Helsinki.

– We have a dog with my girlfriend. It hasn’t been able to travel everywhere. It’s nice to take him to the hall to see his favorite balls. It has had to watch my games on TV quite a lot. Let’s watch it live now, Virtanen laughs and says that the dog was already in the stands a year ago.