Roger Federer lost to Robin Soderling in the quarterfinals of French Open in a rain-interrupted match on Chatrier Court on Tuesday. The world number one and top seed lost 3-6 6-3 7-5 6-4 to fifth seed Soderling, who gained a small measure of revenge for last year’s French Open final defeat to the Swiss star. The defeat marks the first time Federer, who has won a record 16 grand slams, has not reached the semi-finals of a grand slam since he lost to Gustavo Kuerten in the third round in Paris in 2004. Last year Robin Soderling shocked everyone by knocking Rafeal Nadal out of the French Open. This year also he has produced one of the biggest upsets in a grand slam.Before this match Federer had a clean sweep record of 12 winners against Soderling but yesterday he succumbed in the face of a ferocious onslaught as Soderling, beaten by Federer in last year’s final, claimed a first career win against the 16-times grand slam champion at the 13th time of asking. This defeat has deprived Federer of his 17th grand slam title.
“I came in to this tournament with a lot of confidence and today I played really, really well,” the 25-year-old fifth seed told as crowd still shaking their heads in disbelief. Soderling now faces Andy Murray’s fourth-round conqueror Tomas Berdych in the last four. Although we all will certainly miss the aesthetic and delicate strokes of Federer but its guaranteed that the rising star Soderling will show his colors as the tournament goes into the last four.
0 comments:
Post a Comment