Novak Djokovic defeats Robin Soderling; Andy Murray next in semi-final at Rome Masters
Novak Djokovic of Serbia had an easy victory over Robin Soderling of Sweden in the quarterfinal of Internazionali BNL d’Italia on Friday night as he defeated the Swede 6-3, 6-0. After one hour and sixteen minutes of fight, most
of which highlighted magnificent shot-making, Djokovic reserved his spot in the semi-final of the tournament.
The 23-year-old capitalized on a dismal first set from his Swede opponent to grab an early benefit in the match. However, the first set was not a routine victory for the Serbian as he faced a lot a resistance from his opponent.
The Swede pro seemed to be keeping up with the Serbian in the first set, but once his opponent got the break he understood that he had no chance.
After the action began in the first set, Djokovic held his serves and broke the Swede for a 4-2 lead. The second-ranked Serbian, though, gave it right back at 4-3 as the Swede started showing some of his trademark tennis. However,
it was a short-lived happiness for the Swede as few minutes later Djokovic headed towards a 5-3 lead with utmost ease. Soderling didn’t hit any ace but he had an amazing first serve accuracy landing nearly 74 percent in the first set. Aside from his first
service hiccup, the Serbian faced no trouble on serve during the first set and closed out at 6-3.
Having lost the opener, Soderling couldn’t maintain the level of his game and got a bit sloppy. Although he got off to a decent start, it seemed that the Swede pro had given up. Having not dropped a single match in the season,
the Serbian seemed like he would not even lose a single game in the set. He saved 100 percent breakpoints en route to break the Swede without allowing him to win a single game in the entire set. Soderling had been relatively competitive with the Serbian in
their prior meetings, but he was ridiculously tame this time and failed to show that spark that was expected of him. In fact, the fifth ranked seed went to deuce only twice and won meagre 11 of 41 points in total. Djokovic on the other hand was extremely exceptional
and won 19 points more than Soderling to clinch the set without losing a single game.
Djokovic wrapped up the victory with four aces and one double fault. Moreover he served 62 percent and gained 66 percent of both his first and second serve points. Soderling on the other hand, finished the match with two aces and
one double-fault while winning a mere 41 percent in total.
Next up for the Serbian is Andy Murray of Great Britain, who survived Florian Mayer in the third quarterfinal match of the day. The pair has already met each other at eight different occasions on the ATP world tour. However, their
most stimulating performance came at the final match of Australian Open where Djokovic prevailed over the Scot in three thrilling sets. The Scot will be hard-pressed to avenge his blowout setback in Melbourne, because the two haven’t met since that showdown.
Tags: