4 min read
A former Wimbledon champion made waves on the UTR Pro Tennis Tour by capturing the PTT $25K Denmark in February. You likely have heard the name Frederik Nielsen (UTR Rating 13.28) before, as the Dane took home the 2012 Wimbledon doubles championships with Jonathan Marray.
Winning Big at the All-England Club
As wild card entries, Nielsen and Marray stunned the field in London with wins over Bob and Mike Bryan in the semifinals and Robert Lindstedt and Horia Tecau in the final.
“It was a great experience,” Nielsen told Universal Tennis. “It was with a good friend of mine and I was able to milk the whole experience, not just winning matches, but just participating at Wimbledon, which was a childhood dream for me. I never really thought that I was going to be able to be good enough to play so I never lost sight of that… It was quite a fairytale, to be honest.”
He became only the second Danish player to ever win a major and the first wild card team to win the men's doubles title. During his decorated doubles career, Nielsen would win two ATP crowns and 60 ITF and ATP Challenger titles, peaking at No. 17 in the ATP Tour doubles rankings in 2013.
Moving On, But Staying On Court
Nielsen held the mantle as the top-ranked Danish doubles player on the ATP Tour for many years, all the way up until his retirement from the ATP Tour in January of this year. He’s turning his attention to coaching, captaining the Danish Davis Cup team, and raising a young daughter with his wife Ciara.
My time as a professional tennis player is up. It's with disbelief I look back at my 20 years on tour. I'm leaving with pride and happiness over what turned out to be. Thank you to all the people I've shared time with that made it epic! I look forward to meeting up in the future!
— Frederik Nielsen (@freddienielsen) January 25, 2022
But competitive tennis isn't letting him go just yet. Nielsen entered the PTT event in February to help prepare for Denmark’s Davis Cup play-off tie against India in March. Though technically retired, Nielsen suited up to play doubles in New Delhi, losing in a third-set tiebreaker with teammate Mikael Torpegaard. It marked Nielsen’s 46th appearance in a Davis Cup tie.
“I was looking to get some matches to prepare for the Davis Cup tie,” Nielsen said. “We had to play India so it seemed like a good opportunity was close to home and guaranteed of getting a few matches. It was a pretty easy decision.”
Capitalizing on PTT Opportunities
In his PTT debut, he captured the title in Hillerod, Denmark, just north of Copenhagen, with six straight wins. The victory marks his first pro singles crown since 2016. With a PTT event so close to home, it made sense to tune his skills at the Hillerod Tennis Club.
"The guaranteed matches were good for me because I was looking for a few matches to get into shape and it worked out well,” the 38-year-old Dane said. “It was a little bit tough for me as well because I'm very old and haven't played that many singles matches in a long time. It was pretty hard on the body but I really enjoyed it.”
Although he was primarily focused on doubles for the bulk of his career, Nielsen collected 14 ITF-level pro tournament titles since turning pro in 2001. His singles ATP Tour ranking peaked at No. 190.
Nielsen announced the end of his 20-year career on Jan. 20, just after playing his final Australian Open. The Dane will stay busy as the Davis Cup captain and a National Coach at the Danish Tennis Federation. Even so, more PTT appearances could be in his future.
“It's going to be really
Stay tuned to Nielsen's next moves on UniversalTennis.com or by following along on Instagram.