Ernests draws Nieminen in Cincy opener

Ernests will open against Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen in the Cincinnati Masters in an attempt to send his summer hard court campaign off to a flying start prior to the Beijing Olympics and the US Open.

His opponent, the left-handed Finn, is a relative veteran at the age of 27. Nieminen recorded a career-high rank of #13 in 2006 and reached the quarter-finals of the Australian Open this year. He and Ernests have never faced each other on the ATP circuit, but they both played in the doubles rubber of the Latvia-Finland Davis Cup tie in 2007.

This first-round match will be played on Monday at 11am local time (GMT-4) on the Grandstand court, which is covered by the ATP Masters Series video subscription service.

The winner of this match will meet either the ninth-seeded Stanislas Wawrinka or Sweden’s Thomas Johansson in the second round.

~ by Zahirah on July 28, 2008.