Robin Soderling wins 2011 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament
Number one seed Robin Soderling of Sweden has won the 2011 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament by defeating Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the final.
Soderling dominated the start of the match and took the first set 6-3. However, Tsonga came back strongly in the second set to win it 6-3. However, Soderling kept his cool and overcame the Frenchman in the third set 6-3 to successfully defend his title at
Rotterdam, Netherlands.
“I'm incredibly happy about my win, It's obvious that I like Rotterdam a lot. I played well in the important moments, It was a tough match with Jo, like always, but I was able to play my best tennis and keep up my momentum. It feels great. When you come
to a place where you've played well, it brings up good feelings,” stated the world number four Soderling.
Runner up Jo-Wilfried Tsonga after the match said, “I played a good match, in fact, it was my best of the week. I got better with each match this week, I'm pleased with the state of my game. I played well but Robin was too strong, especially at the end of the
match. I'll take confidence form this match into Maresille next week and then hopefully into the Davis Cup (first round against Austria in Vienna).”
Earlier, Tsonga battled it out against the number seven seed, Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia in the semi-final of the tournament. He beat the Croat 6-4, 7-6 to advance to the final. Meanwhile, Soderling went head-to-head with Serbian Viktor Troicki in the semi-final
and beat him 7-5, 6-4 to make his way into the title battle.
In 2010, Soderling beat Russia’s Mikhail Youzhny in the final of the tournament. He took the first set 6-4 and was 2-0 up in the second when Youzhny retired from the match due to a hamstring injury.
Furthermore, winning his 13th match out of the 14 played in 2011, Soderling became the fourth player to defend the title at Rotterdam after tennis legends Stefan Edberg, Nicolas Escude and Arthur Ashe.
Win the win over Tsonga, Soderling now leads the head-to-head record against the Frenchman 4-0.
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