Barclays ATP World Tour Finals: Match Preview – Robin Soderling vs. Andy Murray
The stage is set. The superstars are ready to enter the O2 Arena in London to battle it out for the coveted championship title. Two Group B matches are scheduled for the day. The tournament employs the round robin method with two
professionals in each group with the most wins going on to play for the top four positions. Group B has the Swiss legend Roger Federer, Swede icon Robin Soderling, local favourite Andy Murray and Spaniard David Ferrer.
The first match up of the day is between Soderling and Murray. In-form Soderling comes fresh from a title win at the 2010 BNP Paribas Masters in Paris. Winning his maiden Masters title, critics believe that Soderling poses a dangerous
threat to the other players in the finals. Soderling has managed a quarterfinal or better run in the past seven tour-level events.
Soderling has had a superb indoors season this year. He has managed to raise his career indoor record to 103-38. Of the six titles that he has won in his career, five of them are on indoor courts. One would say he is ready to take
on anyone in London, which coincidentally is also played on indoor courts. The Swede has had much luck this season when it comes to indoor courts. He won both his maiden titles this year on indoor courts. First the ATP 500 series title at the 2010 ABN AMRO
World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam and then his first ever ATP Masters 1000 title at the 2010 BNP Paribas Masters in Paris. After winning the Masters title, Soderling talked about how the victory prepared him for London. He said, “This is great. I think
I played very good last week [in Valencia], and this week, too, on a surface that's pretty similar to what it's going to be in London. And of course I played a lot of good players this week. It gives me a lot of confidence. I think playing in any Masters [1000],
when you play the top players of the world, every match can be a Grand Slam final.”
Soderling qualified for the London finals on October 23 after getting to the quarterfinals of the If Stockholm Open. This is his second qualification. On his debut in London last year, Soderling made it to the semi-finals moving
past the Spaniard legend Rafael Nadal and Serb marvel Novak Djokovic.
Coming in with a recently dealt blow of being replaced as world number four and that too by Soderling; Murray enters the event with two Masters titles under his belt. If Soderling is in full swing this year, then Murray is not
lagging much behind either. Murray won the titles at Toronto and Shanghai defeating Federer on both occasions. He was also the finalist at the Australian Open. Murray enjoys a season win-loss record of 44-16 whereas his career record rests at 265-92.
On October 13th, Murray qualified for the London finals after reaching the third round at the Shanghai Masters. This is his third straight qualification. He made his debut in 2008 where he made it to the semi-finals
posting round robin wins over Andy Roddick, Gilles Simon and Federer. 2009 was not as good for Murray as he failed to qualify for the semis after losing his tiebreaker to eventual finalist Juan Martin Del Potro.
This is Soderling and Murray’s fifth meeting on the courts with their head-to-head score resting at 2-2. Their most recent meeting was in March at the Indian Wells Masters event where the two met for a quarterfinal match. Soderling
enjoyed a straight win over the Brit to level their head-to-head score.
Federer and Ferrer take to the courts in the evening after this matchup. It remains to be seen whether the in-form Swede take the lead in the head-to-head or the Brit?
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