Comment | Emil Ruusuvuore’s game in Stockholm reminds me of 2001 and Jarkko Nieminen

In tennis reaching the star category Emil Ruusuvuori has charmed both Swedish and Finnish spectators at the Stockholm Open.

Ruusuvuori’s great quarter-final victory (6–1, 6–2) of the United States About Frances Tiafoe late Friday reminded me of 2001.

Young Jarkko Nieminen, then 20 years old, stormed from the qualifiers to the final match at the Royal Tennis Hall. Starting with the Swedish tennis legends, everyone fell in love with Nieminen’s bold, fast-paced and results-producing game.

There was no information about possible national envy or little brother attitude when Nieminen was knocked out in the quarterfinals by Thomas Johansson. The next day flew out Thomas Enqvistthe current tournament director of the Stockholm Open.

A lot of the same spirit is needed on Saturday. Rusuvuori meets Greece in the semi-final Stefanos Tsitsipasfifth in the ATP list.

Tsitsipas, 24, is one of those players who have even been predicted to be number one in the world in tennis circles. At his best, he plays like a dream, but when he’s hot, he can hit balls at the opponent like it happened Nick Kyrgios against at Wimbledon last summer.

In the semifinals, Tsitsipas is the big favorite, but Ruusuvuori, who showed his new look, can challenge the Greek.

in Stockholm Rusuvuori’s opponent in the second round was Jiří Lehečka, rising great promise. The general public doesn’t know him yet, but they will learn. Semi-finals Frances Tiafoe is another country.

Tiafoe, 24, has an ATP ranking of 17. In September, he made it to the semi-finals of the US Open with some impressive performances.

Rusuvuori took a big win once and for all, but it was much more important how it came. It is true that Tiafoe passed poorly at the beginning, but Ruusuvuori did not forgive any tame passes.

Tiafoe may have lost the first round wondering. In the second one, nothing saved. Rusuvuori kept the level of his own game so high that the slightly more experienced American couldn’t find any gap to enter the match.

This is precisely where the strength of Ruusuvuori lay. Throughout his professional career, he has lost situations. There have been two-game leads, sometimes bigger, that have just disappeared.

In the semifinals, the game remained bold and relaxed from start to finish. It has also been familiar to Ruusuvuori, that sometimes there have been very loose or easy double mistakes. They weren’t too bad either in the evening in Stockholm.

Last year, Ruusuvuori lost in the first round of a grueling long battle at the Stockholm Open. It was like a lesson for this year and a promise of better things to come.

In many of its losing matches, Ruusuvuori has played too formulaic. He has hit the ball alternately from corner to corner, which has been easy to learn. This taboo was also broken in the previous two matches.

Ruusuvuori’s relaxed game led to breakthroughs and such a tempo that neither Lehečka nor Tiafoe could get on the same train.

Stockholm In the Open, the semifinal day for two Finns is on Saturday.

First, Ruusuvuori steps onto the central court of the Royal Tennis Hall. For the first time, a Finnish player is in the singles semifinals in Stockholm in 11 years. In his career, Nieminen played three times in the final and twice in the semi-finals.

Later in the evening Harri Heliövaara trying to get ahead of his partner by Lloyd Glasspool with for the final match.