Patrik Niklas-Salminen found himself in a tough spot when Jarkko Nieminen quit – the change to a fours player brought a surprising spot to the French Open

This year, three Finns will be seen in the main series of the French Open tennis tournament, which starts on Sunday. Emil Ruusuvuori and Harri Heliövaara are already experienced visitors to Grand Slam tournaments. Instead Patrik Niklas-Salminen26, will now be seen for the first time at this level.

– Of course it feels really good, a lot of work has been done for it. It is perhaps a bit of a surprise even to myself that it came so quickly, Niklas-Salminen said after the physical exercises while visiting Finland during the tournament.

The speed suggests that Niklas-Salminen only started fully focusing on doubles last summer. Otherwise, the career of the tennis professional from Tampere has not been a celebratory march upwards.

At the age of 15, Niklas-Salminen moved to Helsinki with his mother for tennis and trained Jarkko Nieminen in the academy. Both my own and others’ expectations of Niklas-Salminen started to rise high when he advanced to the semifinals of the Wimbledon boys’ series in 2015. The pressure was not reduced by the fact that Jarkko Nieminen ended his career in the same year.

– That’s when we started thinking about who will be the next one to take care of men’s tennis in Finland. It didn’t make my situation any easier that there was Nieminen and now there is Niklas-Salminen, whose ranking is 700. The pressure started to increase, I didn’t enjoy the game in the same way anymore and there were also injuries, Niklas-Salminen said.

The career did not take off as expected. Niklas-Salminen’s best ranking in singles was 418. Both wrists were cut during the years of singles. Surgery on the wrist of the left, i.e. playing hand, caused a break of half a year, surgery on the right wrist three months. The right ankle has also been cleaned.

– I haven’t stopped to think about it, at least not yet, whether I could have done something better. I turned over every stone and tried to gather people around me who could push me forward. But it wasn’t for me and my body.

Transition to four player

The decision to switch to doubles matured gradually.

– There was surgery on my left wrist, I hadn’t played for half a year because of it. I started playing again in the summer of 2021. At that time I was still trying to make a comeback in singles and I put all my efforts into it, but it didn’t feel the same as before.

– There were a lot of difficulties, motivation started to go and the ranking dropped at the same time. I’m starting to wonder if I should bet on doubles because I knew I could do well there. I ended up with that solution. It wasn’t an easy decision, because singles is what I’ve been playing since I was little.

The doubles career ended last summer.

In recent years, there have been good examples in the doubles game in Finland. Henri Kontinen rose to number one in the world and Harri Heliövaara into the top ten.

– It made the transition easier when you have seen it up close and trained with them. I have talked to them about what they think about my level. Kontinen’s Henkka tried to talk me into a doubles game earlier.

Good results with Bart Stevens from Holland

Now the decision to switch to doubles seems right. Niklas-Salminen has made a Dutchman this year Bart Stevens with a good result. The cooperation started to be tuned in the late summer of last year.

– We already knew. We were both looking for a couple then and decided to try together.

The duo played four races together last fall. A common note began to be found and Stevens went to Finland between seasons to train with Niklas-Salminen.

The start of this season was great. Since the beginning of the year, the two have played in five ATP challenger tournament finals, of which they have won one. Niklas-Salminen’s doubles ranking has already reached the top 100.

The two complement each other playfully.

– I’m maybe a little better from the backcourt and passing is my biggest strength. He has really good hands and he is good at the net, Niklas-Salminen described.

To the French Open as a pair of Ruusuvuori

Niklas-Salminen and Stevens, despite their good success, still cannot participate in the French Open as a pair. Their combined rankings are not enough. Ruusuvuori came to the rescue. When entering the doubles chart, you can use the singles ranking, so Niklas-Salminen can join with Ruusuvore.

– It’s a big deal. It helps a lot that I can already play at this stage.

Niklas-Salminen likes to play with Ruusuvuori.

– I try to bring relaxation to it. Sometimes during the game we talk about other things than tennis. But it’s great to have a doubles player of that level next to you.

Ruusuvuori and Niklas-Salminen played together, for example, in the Doha ATP tournament in February. There they took down the former world number one pair Nikola Mektic / Mate Pavic. So there is potential.

– Every match can definitely be won.

Niklas-Salminen has had to set goals again.

– The goal for this season was top 100, but it came surprisingly quickly. Now the goal is top 50 and we should be able to play more ATP tournaments all the time.

Niklas-Salmista has previously coached, among other things Tuomas Ketola, but at the moment he doesn’t have an actual tennis coach. Henri Kontinen has sometimes worked at the end of Finland.

As a physical trainer, Niklas-Salmis has Nikola Zujica Serb who once came to Finland to play handball, who has trained in physical coaching and worked as an assistant to other top Finnish tennis players.

Finally, it is worth mentioning Niklas-Salminen’s rare surname. Urheilu found out the background of the name after Niklas-Salminen advanced to the boys’ semifinals of Wimbledon in 2015.

There is confusion with the name when many people think the first name is Niklas.

– Yes, there will be a lot of confusion. You’re already used to it, even in elementary school the teachers got confused. Sometimes he fixes it, but sometimes he can’t. Then we just go with what comes out of the other person’s mouth. It will go a long way.