Frederik Løchte Nielsen (born 27 August 1983) is a former professional tennis player. He was the top ranked player from Denmark in the ATP doubles world rankings. A former Wimbledon men's doubles champion, he peaked at no. 17 in the rankings in April 2013. Nielsen has reached five other doubles finals on tour, winning on two occasions.
Nielsen's parents were both tennis players and he picked up the sport at the age of three. Having turned professional in 2001, he began competing on the ITF circuit, winning a singles title every year between 2005 and 2010. He continued to play in ITF and ATP Challenger tournaments, garnering considerable success on the doubles circuit where he won multiple titles during the period.
Nielsen made a transition on to the main ATP Tour beginning 2012. He represented Denmark at the Hopman Cup that year, playing a few keenly contested matches against top-ranked opponents including Tomas Berdych and Mardy Fish, while also winning in doubles with Caroline Wozniacki. Nielsen entered the 2012 Wimbledon Championships with Jonathan Marray as wildcard entrant, but the duo went on to win the tournament upstaging such higher-ranked opponents as the Bryan brothers en route to the title. He became only the second Danish player to ever win a Grand Slam title (following his grandfather Kurt) and the first wildcard entrant to win Wimbledon men's doubles title.
Partnering Johan Brunström, Nielsen reached the finals of the 2012 Moselle Open and the 2013 Heineken Open, before winning his first tour-level title at the 2014 Aircel Chennai Open. He continued to play on the Challenger tour in singles, while enjoying success in doubles on the main ATP circuit, winning again at the 2019 BMW Open.
Nielsen is the grandson of Kurt Nielsen. A former Danish tennis player and two-time Wimbledon finalist a US Open Mixed Doubles champion.
Career
Debut and early years
Nielsen made his ATP singles debut in Copenhagen, losing to Magnus Larsson in the first round d 6–1, 6–1. In 2003, he made his Davis Cup debut in the Europe/Africa Zone Group II tie against Tunisia at Hillerod, Denmark and defeated Malek Jaziri 6–1, 6–4 in the dead rubber, Denmark winning 4–1. Nielsen also won the singles title at the Futures event in Vietnam.
In 2004, Nielsen teamed with countryman Rasmus Nørby to win 5 Futures doubles titles. Reached 1 Futures Singles final. He won 1 doubles Futures title and 2 titles in 4 Futures singles finals in 2005. In 2006, he won doubles title at 2 Challengers and 7 Futures. Also won 3 Futures singles titles.
In 2007, Nielsen won doubles titles at 3 Challengers and Futures. 2-time singles winner at Futures. In 2008, Nielsen won 2 doubles Challengers and 1 Futures, all three with different partners. In 2009, he won 3 Challengers tournaments in doubles and 1 Futures title in singles.
In 2010, Nielsen won 2 Challengers and 3 Futures in Men's doubles. He also won singles Futures event in Italy. The following year, he won 5 Challengers doubles titles with 3 different partners; he was the finalist at 3 other events.
2012: Wimbledon doubles champion
Nielsen represented Denmark at the 2012 Hopman Cup alongside Caroline Wozniacki, but the pair could not get past the Group Stages. Nielsen had a 1–4 Win–loss record at the event, 1–1 in doubles and 0–3 in singles. He played much higher ranked opponents in Tomáš Berdych, Grigor Dimitrov and Mardy Fish. He managed to win 1 set against Fish but eventually lost 4–6, 7–6, 6–4. Nielsen and Wozniacki still managed to pull out the doubles match against Fish and Bethanie Mattek-Sands 7–5, 6-3 and won their only tie against USA.
He then played at the Australian Open and qualified for the main draw at a Grand Slam for the first time but lost to Kevin Anderson 6–1, 6–2, 6–4 in the first round. In February, Nielsen was selected for the Davis Cup Europe/Africa Zone Group I tie against Slovenia, which Denmark lost 5–0.
Nielsen had been friends with Jonny Marray since their early days on the senior tour, but had only played together twice before in 2006 and 2008.
Playing doubles with Marray in June, their first pairing of the year, they reached the Nottingham Challenger finals, losing out to Treat Huey and Dominic Inglot in three tight sets 4–6, 7-6(9), 8-10. They compiled a 10-6 match record in 6 tournaments.