Robin Soderling crushes local Gilles Simon in the fourth round – French Open 2011
Fifth seed, Robin Soderling of Sweden moved into his third straight Roland Garros quarterfinal in Paris, France on Monday, May 30th after he successfully dismissed local Gilles Simon in straight sets in their fourth
round match.
Soderling took almost two hours to secure a 6-2, 6-4, 7-6() victory over the eighteenth seeded Frenchman.
Playing in their seventh match on tour, Soderling came out firing in the opener as he broke the Frenchman’s serve in the very first game and then again in the third to lead the first set 4-0. Winning the next two games on his
serve, Soderling served out the set at 5-2 to go one up in the set score.
Taking a little over thirty minutes, Soderling hit seventeen winners including three aces as he registered an impressive 87% win on his first percentage to clinch the opener 6-2.
The second set saw some resistance from the Frenchman as he matched blow for blow against the Swede. With each player holding their serves comfortably, the set was tied for the first six games. A lucky break in the seventh game
put Soderling in a 5-3 lead. A triad of winners from Soderling and double faults and errors from Simon gave the Swede another break in the ninth game, as he clinched the second set 6-3.
With a two set lead, Soderling was all set to seal his straight sets victory against the French. It seemed that the local support did very little to keep Simon in the match.
Maintaining his dominance in the third set, Soderling clinched another early break as he led the score 3-0. However, resistance from the Frenchman and a break in the seventh game tied the score at four games each. The game was
finally forced into a tiebreaker. Three unforced errors from Simon put Soderling at an early 3-0 lead, which he later extended to 4-1. Serving out the tiebreaker at 6-4, Soderling hit a winner down the line to clinch a 7-4 win in the tiebreaker and seal his
straight sets victory against the Frenchman.
A two time finalist here, Soderling hopes to go one step further this time around. However, his biggest hurdle in the title run awaits him in his quarterfinal match. Soderling moves on ahead to play the King of Clay, Rafael Nadal
in the next round. This will be the pair’s fourth meeting here at Stade Roland Garros.
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