Robin Soderling reaches second straight French Open final
Robin Soderling is through to the French Open final for the second straight year, after winning a five-set semi-final battle against Tomas Berdych.
It was Soderling who started the match stronger of the two, with 12 winners and five aces helping the 2009 French Open runner-up take the early ascendency in the match.
Berdych, however, wasn’t about to give Soderling a free pass to the final just because he’d knocked out defending champion Roger Federer in his previous match. After taking a set to settle into the first Grand Slam semi-final of his career, the 15th seed started to swing the momentum in his favour, and ultimately secured the second set with an ace.
With each player securing just one break of serve apiece in the opening two sets, by the time scores were level at 6-3, 3-6, 3-3 in the third set, neither player could be separated even on points – each of them had won 77 for the match at that stage.
By then though, Berdych was clearly getting on top of Soderling as the Swede’s unforced error count continued to grow, and in the third set outstripped the number of winners the fifth seed managed to produce.
Soderling’s frustration eventually manifested itself in some racquet smashing antics towards the end of the third set, but that release of the tension that had been building up for almost two sets could do nothing to stop the Czech from securing his third break of the match to take the set 7-5 and establish a two sets to one lead in the match.
It was Soderling who secured the first break of the fourth set to establish a 4-2 lead in this battle of big-hitting baseliners, and with no more breaks to follow, the world No. 7 levelled the match at two sets apiece.
Soderling continued to build momentum by breaking Berdych in the opening game of the deciding set, but the advantage didn’t last long with his 6ft 5in opponent breaking straight back to level again at 1-1 as the match approached the three hour mark.
Games then remained on serve until the seventh game of the set, when Soderling set up triple break point after a ball cruelly stayed low on Berdych as he approached the net, and left him stranded as Soderling landed the passing shot in the forehand corner. The 25-year-old only needed two of them to get his nose in front at 4-3 in the fifth.
Trailing 0-30 on serve in the next game, Soderling reeled off four straight points to hold and force Berdych to serve to stay in the match.
A superb passing shot handed the Swede the first point of the game; Berdych won the next two points; and Soderling the next two to set up match point; and when the Czech sent a forehand just wide after three hours and 27 minutes of play, Soderling was through to the French Open final for the second year running with a 6-3, 3-6, 5-7, 6-3, 6-3 scoreline.
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