Robin Soderling battles past Nicolas Almagro to move into the quarterfinals at Rome Masters
Fifth seed Robin Soderling is through the final eight, following his three-set victory over Nicolas Almagro on Thursday afternoon. The 26-year-old Swede served a poor 36 percent in the decider, but earned one key break point on
Almagro’s serve to seal the match in three sets. He concluded the two hour, five minutes effort with three aces and three of five break points converted.
Apart from losing the serve once, the Swede easily slipped past a resilient Spaniard who appeared to be struggling very hard in the match. Despite picking up the second set, Almagro didn’t hold the ground and lost the match in
three sets. Soderling and Almagro held serve for the first five games, before the set observed the contenders trading heavy breaks. The Swede, a violent opponent fought for every single point like it was a fight to the death. The 6-ft-4 inch Soderling was
totally remarkable as he found ways to use his height and power to cope with Almagro’s shots, working his way to convert two of three break points. Serving at 4-3, the Swede pushed his way through and destroyed the Spaniard to go 5-3 before closing out the
set. The Swede scored 75 percent on service, 48 percent on return and 61 percent in total. Almagro totally went off balance and allowed the Swede to take a first set lead.
Early in the second set it was all one-way one way traffic as Soderling dropped his aggressiveness that gave him the opening set. As Almagro stepped up to serve, his fans went wild, screaming and encouraging him to show his trademark
one-handed backhand. Almagro fired up and Soderling remained unable to stop him. The Spaniard continued to play tremendously and put the Swede under immense pressure. Despite giving a tough fight, Soderling smashed a wild forehand to allow his opponent a break
of serve. From then on the Spaniard never looked back and struck eleven winners while committing only six errors.
No matter how the second set closed out, Soderling still ensured that only the top seeds will contest the quarterfinal of the tournament. Soderling came out swinging early in the set, violently hunting down the ball in a way his
fans didn’t see in the first set. Maintaining his composure, the Swede succeeded at closing out the match with 6-4 score line. Soderling gained 69 percent of points on his service, 35 percent of points on return and 52 percent of points in total to close
out the match in three thrilling sets.
The Swede now moves on ahead to face Novak Djokovic of Serbia in the quarterfinal of the tournament. The Serbian has a 5-1 lead over the Swede in their prior matches, including a 1-0 lead on clay. Since both players are in their
best form, so it will be very exciting to see whether the 26-year-old Swede can pose a real threat to Serb’s hot streak this season.
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