Finland is a country with a rich history in many sports, from winter disciplines such as ski and the ice Hockey until the motoringbut with little tradition in tennis. Only two players from the country achieved notable achievements on the ATP circuit. the doubles player Henri Kontinen was champion in australian open 2017 and former world number one in that specialty. Y Jarkko Nieminen he reached 13th place in singles and won two titles. That is why he was the great idol of the childhood of Emil Ruusuvuorithe leader of the Finnish team that will receive Argentina in Espoo, this weekend, to play the series of Qualifiers from Davis Cup 2023.
Born in Helsinki on April 2, 1999, the 43rd in the world ranking is the only Finnish racket in the top 100 and has just lost in the second round of the oceanic Grand Slam with the Russian Andrey Rublev. Thus he equaled his best performance in a “major” category in which he could never win two matches in a row.
It was not the best start to the season for the Finn, who has accumulated a 1-3 record in 2023, since before his time in Melbourne he had lost in his ATP debut in Pune y Adelaide. This lazy moment should not relax the Argentines, because Ruusuvuori closed 2022 –the best year of his career– in clear ascent and with its best ranking, 40th place. And he showed that he has the talent to complicate the toughest opponents and the mental strength to face great challenges.
Ruusuvuori, 23, had to work hard to earn a place on the tennis circuit, a sport he discovered by chanceone day he was playing badminton with his mom Eva in a club in his hometown.
“Mika Muilu, who was watching her daughter’s gymnastics training, came up to me and said: ‘You seem to have some hand-eye coordination. Do you want to come play tennis?’. And that’s how I started,” she recalled a couple of years ago in a note with the ATP.
The 5-year-old boy quickly took a liking to this new discipline and began to closely follow the adventures of Nieminen, who became a a role model. When he was 13, Emil began training at the academy that his idol has in Helsinki together with the Italian Frederick Ricciwho ended up becoming his coach.
Ruusuvuori had to work on something other than his tennis. “The Finns are relaxed people, quite calm,” Ricci once recounted. “Emil had to build a competitive mindset, which was not natural to him. And that takes time.”
The Finn got it and it didn’t take long to start reaping achievements. As a junior, he came to occupy the fourth step of the ranking and was a semifinalist in the US Open and champion of ITF Junior Masters in 2017. The following year, he made the leap to professionalism and in June 2019 he won his first Challenger in Fergana, Uzbekistan.
With that consecration, he made history because he became the youngest Finn to win a tournament on that circuit and the first to do so since Nieminen, in November 2013.
In September 2019, he added his first victory against a top 100 by defeating Dominic Thiem (then fifth in the ranking) in a clash of the Davis cup and achieved his second title in the Manacor Challengerwhich was played on the courts of the Rafa Nadal Academy.
As an extra prize for that celebration, he was invited to prepare the 2020 season at that institution. Ruusuvuori did not let this opportunity pass him by and ended up giving himself the pleasure of sharing some work sessions with Rafawhom I used to watch on TV when I was little.
“It’s something really different the way he hits the ball and how hard he hits the ball and how he keeps the practice so intense. It’s something I’ve never experienced and it’s one of the best memories I have. There’s a lot you can see and learn from that, even if it’s just one training session,” he said after that experience.
After that dream preseason in Manacor, he was ready to make a leap in quality, but the coronavirus pandemic stopped him just when he was one step away from entering the top 100.
“It was very hard. There were many big tournaments that I had never played, like Indian Wells. We arrived, we practiced and the tournament was not played. It was not easy,” he recalled in the middle of that year.
To take advantage of the five-month break, he looked with his coach for a way to continue developing his game without stepping on a court.
“Federico gave me the chance to see matches by Agassi, Sampras, Federer and Safin. And other classics from the past. All very good. Agassi was still playing against many of the players who are still on the Tour, so there are many similar things. It was very nice And it helped me a lot,” he said.
That work paid off. After the resumption of the circuit in August, he managed to get into the top 100 for the first time and in October he played his first semi in the ATP de Nur Sultan, Kazakhstan. In 2021 he achieved the best victory of his career on the ATP circuit by defeating the German in the second round of Miami Alexander Zverevseventh in the world, and became a regular presence in the tour most important in men’s tennis.
Last year he had the best season of his short career. He started playing his first final, in Punewhere he lost to the Portuguese João Sousa. In October, she reached the semis in Stockholmwhere he beat the American in the quarterfinals Frances Tiafoesemifinalist of the US Open shortly before, and said goodbye before Stefanos Tsitsipas. And he closed the year in the top 40.
The objectives of 2023: a title and a victory against Argentina
Video game fanatic -travels with his PlayStation– and music -he plays the drums very well-, the Finn is very clear about his great dream as a tennis player. “It’s an easy question: win a Grand Slam,” he said some time ago. Although for now he thinks short term.
“The good closing of 2022 shows that we are doing things right. This season I want to improve my performance in the Grand Slams and win a title,” he commented in an interview with the ITF a few weeks ago, before his time in Melbourne.
The Finn beat the clash with Argentina, which will be his Davis Cup ninth seriesa tournament in which he debuted in 2017 and accumulates a record of nine wins and five losses in singles.
“Representing my country is always special and we don’t usually have that team atmosphere in tennis. Playing at home is super exciting and we want to take advantage of the locality,” said the man who faced two Argentines last year, although that background will not help him. a lot.
It is that he played twice with Sebastian Baez (victory in the first round of the Melbourne ATP and defeat at the start of the qualy of Rome) and many others with Diego Schwartzman (fall in second in Indian Wells and celebration in the debut in Hamburg). but neither Self44° del ranking, neither him small26°, They are in Espoo.
Despite these and other absences, Ruusuvuori anticipated: “Argentina has a lot of quality players and the level of the series is going to be very high.”
HS
