Rafael Nadal, Robin Soderling Set for Heavyweight Fight

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: June 5, 2010

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In the absence of yet another clash between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, the best Roland Garros final we could probably have asked for was this one, as Nadal seeks to overcome the only man to have ever beaten him on French clay.

That man, Robin Soderling, has added another high-profile win this year, but on Sunday seeks to become more than just an answer to a trivia question.

 

Robin Soderling

Last year the big Swede Soderling played the role of Ivan Drago or, for the more realistic, George Foreman, the heavyweight whose sheer puissance overwhelmed all obstacles—including his own lack of variety.

Sure, Nadal wasn’t at the top of his game, but a lot of that had to do with Soderling not allowing him to play his best. The Swedish clubber crushed so many forehands, drove so many two-handed backhands up the line, and served so huge that all the best clay court defender of our day could do was try to hang on. 

He failed, and so would Nikolay Davydenko in the next round, as Soderling allowed the Russian scrapper just five games. The mystique of Soderling as a force that could not be resisted, combined with a ruthless persona that even the congenial Nadal couldn’t warm to, lasted all the way to the finals. 

There he met Federer, who could deflect Soderling’s pace and quickly turned the match into a contest of serving placement, volleying touch, and drop shots. Suddenly, Soderling looked about as awe-inspiring as a heavyweight boxer trying to ice skate for the first time. What’s more, his image as a brute was permanently punctured when he said, in the trophy presentation, that Federer had given him a lesson on “how to play tennis.”

In the year since then, Soderling has put up good results, somewhat unlucky to have faced Federer in the last three of 2009’s majors, but lacked any major statements following his defeat...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Tennis

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