The world number two, Roger Federer, and former world number 13, Jarkko Nieminen, will be playing against each other in an exhibition match next month to celebrate the Finns' professional tennis career, which will come to an end after this season.

Nieminen going out with a bang

34 year old Nieminen, a regular member in the Top 100 for over a decade, announced his retirement plans back in June this year. He has only played a handful of tournaments since then, but has been very vocal about his dream to end his career with a match against Federer in his own home country of Finland.

The farewell event, officially called 'The Last Night', has now been scheduled to take place in Helsinki on Monday the 9th of November, in Hartwall Arena - right after the final ATP Masters 1000 event of the season, the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris. Other special guests in addition to Federer are ice hockey legends Teemu Selänne - an extremely popular figure in Finland - and Peter Forsberg. They are scheduled to join Nieminen and Federer on the court to play a doubles match. Music performers and other entertainment is also planned for the event.

Both players looking forward to playing

"One of my dreams will come true in November, I will get a chance to play my last professional career tennis match against the all-time best tennis player and one of my good friends, Roger Federer", Nieminen said. He then added how great it is to get to celebrate his career with all of Finland, and that he wishes that everyone enjoys the event.

Federer seems equally keen about the forthcoming match, tweeting about it on Wednesday, 30th of September. He also explains his friendship with Nieminen, saying "I've known Jarkko for a long time. We played at the Junior World Championships in 1998 and we've been friends ever since. I will miss him out on the ATP tour but I'm really excited to play with him in his final match. It's also a great chance to visit Finland for the first time!"