2011 ABN AMRO World Tennis: Robin Soderling vs. Mikhail Youzhny – Preview
Top seed, Robin Soderling, continues his title defence at the 2011 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam this week as he plays his quarterfinal match against 2007 titlist here, Russian ace, Mikhail Youzhny.
Seeded fifth in the event, Youzhny is playing his first tour level event of the season and he seems to be doing very well. Coming back from a back injury that ended his 2010 season prematurely, Youzhny hopes to make it back into the top ten.
Seeded tenth in the Grand Slam two weeks ago, Youzhny met with some bad luck as he was ousted from the event in the third round by the hard hitting Canadian, Milos Raonic.
However, returning to the tour at Rotterdam, Youzhny has yet to drop a set. Seeded fifth in the event, Youzhny played Spaniard, Marcel Granollers, in his opening match. Enjoying a straight, though perhaps not so simple, sets victory Youzhny moved on ahead
into the event.
Playing local Thiemo de Bakker in the second round, Youzhny enjoyed another straight sets victory despite the odds stacked against him.
Playing in his seventh year here, Youzhny makes it into his fourth quarterfinal here.
Debuting in 2002, Youzhny suffered a first round exit, losing to Tommy Robredo. The Russian’s lucky break came in 2007 when he made it all the way to the finals and eventually clinched a title here defeating Ivan Ljubicic.
Youzhny enjoyed another final run here in 2010 though he had to pull out of the final match against Soderling due to an injury.
Playing Soderling again at the same stage a year later, Youzhny hopes to give it his all and win one over the Swede.
However, at the moment, Soderling leads the career head to head 4-1 enjoying a four match winning streak. The pair’s last meeting had come in the quarterfinal match at the Miami Masters in 2010.
Holding a four match winning streak against the Russian might give the Swede some confidence since he’s playing with the added pressure of defending his title here.
Playing in his fourth year here, Soderling is into his third quarterfinal here. Following his first round exit in his debut year, Soderling enjoyed a final run here in 2008 though he failed to clinch the title losing to Michael Llodra.
However, a determined Soderling returned to the event in 2010 and again made it to the finals. The retirement of Youzhny from the match gave the Swede an automatic title win which was coincidentally his maiden title win at an ATP 500 level event.
Starting the year ranked fifth in the world, Soderling rose in the rankings after he played at the season opener, 2011 Brisbane International. Defeating defending champion Andy Roddick, Soderling started the year with a title win.
His top form, however, failed to carry him far in the Australian Open as he lost to Alexandr Dolgopolov in the fourth round. This was Soderling’s only loss in the season so far.
Improving to a year-to-date win loss mark of 10-1 this week, Soderling enjoyed wins against local wildcard entrant Robin Haase and Philipp Kohlschreiber.
Prediction: Should the pressure of a title defence not get to him, Soderling is the clear favourite to win the match though a healthy and in-form Youzhny, will do his best to push the match to three sets and put up much resistance.
However, a cool, calm and collected Soderling, will definitely move past the Russian into the final four.
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