Anu Nieminen

Anu Nieminen
Personal information
Birth name	Anu Kristiina Weckström
Country	Finland
Born	(1977-12-16) 16 December 1977 (age 47) Helsinki, Finland
Height	1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)
Weight	61 kg (134 lb)
Handedness	Right
Women's singles
Highest ranking	37 (21 January 2010)
BWF profile

Anu Kristiina Nieminen (born 16 December 1977; née Weckström) is a Finnish badminton player. Born in Helsinki, Nieminen joined the national team in 1994.[1] She is one of the best badminton players in Finland, having won twelve National Championships,[2] and competed in four consecutive Summer Olympics.[3]

Nieminen first represented Finland at the Olympic level at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney. She reached the second round before losing to Kanako Yonekura of Japan.[4] In 2004 Olympics, she was defeated by Kaori Mori of Japan in the Round of 32.[5] In 2006, she signed with the Finnish cosmetics company Lumene, along with her husband, professional tennis player Jarkko Nieminen.

Nieminen competed at the 2008 Olympics, she again reached the second round, this time losing to Huaiwen Xu of Germany.[6] In the 2012 Olympics, she won her first match against Victoria Montero of Mexico, but after losing to Tai Tzu-ying of Chinese Taipei, she did not advance beyond the group stages.[7] In 2013, she joined the Lillerød Badminton in Denmark as a coach for the young players.[8]

Achievements

BWF International Challenge/Series

Women's singles

Year	Tournament	Opponent	Score	Result
2011	Slovak Open	Patty Stolzenbach	21–14, 19–21, 21–16	Winner
2008	Austrian International	Zhang Xi	21–19, 13–21, 9–21	Runner-up
2005	Italian International	Tine Rasmussen	4–11, 5–11	Runner-up
2003	Dominican Republic International	Miyo Akao	5–11, 11–7, 11–13	Runner-up
2002	Slovenian International	Petya Nedelcheva	11–6, 1–11, 9–11	Runner-up
2002	Finnish International	Petya Nedelcheva	7–1, 7–4, 7–0	Winner
2001	Irish International	Kara Solmundson	3–7, 7–1, 2–7, 5–7	Runner-up
2001	Norwegian International	Tatiana Vattier	7–0, 7–1, 7–4	Winner
2001	Portugal International	Pi Hongyan	8–11, 1–11	Runner-up
2000	Scottish International	Christina Sørensen	11–4, 3–11, 11–4	Winner
2000	Norwegian International	Katja Wengberg	11–7, 11–6	Winner
2000	Croatian International	Markéta Koudelková	11–6, 11–4	Winner
2000	Dutch International	Lonneke Janssen	3–11, 3–11	Runner-up
2000	Cuba International	Takako Ida	2–11, 4–11	Runner-up
1999	Irish International	Miho Tanaka	9–11, 5–11	Runner-up
1999	Guatemala International	Denyse Julien	6–11, 10–13	Runner-up
1999	Argentina International	Kara Solmundson	6–11, 6–11	Runner-up
1999	Brazil International	Kara Solmundson	13–10, 11–9	Winner
1999	Bulgarian International	Elena Nozdran	6–11, 8–11	Runner-up
1998	Scottish International	Margit Borg	5–11, 3–11	Runner-up
1998	Austrian International	Carolien Glebbeek	3–11, 12–9, 8–11	Runner-up

Women's doubles

Year	Tournament	Partner	Opponent	Score	Result
2000	Norwegian International	Nina Weckström	Caroline Eriksson Johanna Persson	10–15, 15–10, 15–7	Winner

  BWF International Challenge tournament

  BWF International Series tournament

References

1. "Players: Anu Nieminen". Badminton World Federation. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
2. "SM-sulkapalloa 1980-1990-luvuilla" (in Finnish). Yle. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
3. "Anu Weckström". International Olympic Committee. 2016-06-22. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
4. "Sydney 2000" (in Finnish). Suomen Sulkapalloliitto. Archived from the original on 24 January 2018. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
5. "Badminton women's singles results". BBC Sport. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
6. "Vanhasen kannustus ei auttanut Anu Niemistä" (in Finnish). Iltalehti. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
7. "Lontoo 2012" (in Finnish). Suomen Sulkapalloliitto. Archived from the original on 24 January 2018. Retrieved 24 January 2018.
8. "Anu Nieminen til Lillerød som cheftræner for ungdom" (in Danish). BadmintonBladet.dk. Retrieved 24 January 2018.

External links

• Anu Nieminen at BWFBadminton.com
• Anu Nieminen at BWF.TournamentSoftware.com (alternate link) (archived)
• Anu Nieminen at Olympedia (archive)
• Anu Nieminen at Olympics.com
• Photo of Anu Nieminen at the Wayback Machine (archived 29 September 2007)