Sjeng snaps Jarkko’s run

stockholm: eight days of gruelling tennis finally took a toll on finnish qualifier jarkko nieminen who went down fighting at the hands of sjeng schalken in the final at the 800,000-dollar stockholm open on sunday. the 20-year-old left-hander went down 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 to the experienced dutch sixth seed after three hours and 23 minutes. i was dying after first set, said nieminen.i'd had long matches, and i had to really fight with myself today. but sjeng played really well. i was up 3-0 in the fifth but they all were very tight games. at the end, i just couldn't take it any more. nieminen had been hoping to become the first player from finland to lift a professional title. the closest they had come was in 1981 when compatriot leo palin reached the final in bulgaria.