BNP Paribas Masters - Soderling battles past Roddick; Llodra’s excellent form continues
The Swedish tennis ace Robin Soderling made his way into the semi-final round of the BNP Paribas Masters Men’s singles tournament on Friday with a two-setter victory over Andy Roddick from the United States of America in Bercy. The final match score was
7-5, 6-4.
World number five bided his time in the opening set before converting his fifth break point opportunity during the eleventh game to take a lead of one set in the end. Seeded fourth to win the title in Paris, Soderling then capitalised on his momentum by
breaking serve to secure a lead of 2-0 in the following set and eventually went on to seal win in the end. The battle concluded in a time period of eighty seven minutes.
Both Robin and Andy will next play at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London, which is set to start later this month.
“Against Andy the margin is always going to be very small. I lost to him in three sets in Indian Wells and I lost to him 7-6 in the third set in Cincinnati. However matches, with a little bit of luck, I think I could have won. Against Andy, it is always
just a matter of taking the chances you get, and then today I think I did really well,” reflected the Swede who has snapped a two match losing streak versus Roddick.
Roddick, on the other hand, while commenting on his yesterday’s match lamented, “I did not start off well and Soderling is the kind of guy who, if you do not start off well, you are not going to see a lot of rallies to be able to work your way into a match.
I just did not feel sharp. Everything was very average. I played one good point, one bad point. The basics were not there as much as they have been the past couple weeks, which is disappointing, but it is what it is.”
The 26-year-old Swede is through to the final four round in Paris on the very first occasion after a quarter final exit back in 2004 as well as last year. The Tibro native is looking to capture his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 crown.
Soderling, as a result of this win will next take on Michael Llodra of France, who continued his dream run in Bercy by getting the better of tenth ranked Russian and 2006 event winner Nikolay Davydenko in two sets. The final match score was 7-5, 6-1.
The 30-year-old Michael, who surpassed last year’s winner Novak Djokovic of Serbia in the round three, is playing in his first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 semi-final on the tour.
Currently ranked number thirty four in the South African Airways ATP list, Michael fell behind an early break of serve during the opening set, however from trailing 2-4, went on to take eleven of the next thirteen games to clinch win in the end. The match
was stretched to a time period of seventy five minutes on Friday.
Michael’s win also ensured that there will be a French representative in the final four round this time in Bercy on the fourth occasion in a row.
The 30-year-old Llodra is the first unseeded player who has stormed into the final four at the BNP Paribas Masters since 2007 when David Nalbandian of Argentina grabbed the title while Marcos Baghdatis advanced into the semis. He is looking to make his way
into his third ATP World Tour final of the year after lifting trophies in Marseille and Eastbourne earlier in 2010.
Tags: