Rafael Nadal’s world laid to waste last year and now Roger Federer ruthlessly put to the sword, Sweden’s Robin Soderling is clearly the undisputed champion-slayer of Roland Garros.
As rain fell from a dark Parisian sky on Tuesday, Soderling towered through the murk, unleashing thunderbolt serves and ferocious forehands to leave the Swiss defending champion reeling and silence a pro-Federer crowd on Court Chatrier.
His 3-6, 6-3, 7-5, 6-4 victory was the biggest upset at the claycourt grand slam since ... well, 12 months ago, when he ended Nadal’s four-year stranglehold on the French Open with an equally destructive show of force.
PHOTO: REUTERS
Soderling had lost all 12 of his matches against Federer, including last year’s final, when the world No. 1 completed a career grand slam.
Tuesday’s rain-interrupted contest seemed to be heading the same way until the Swede turned the tide and then seized the initiative near the end of a pivotal third set.
Federer’s loss was even more of a bombshell as he had reached the semi-final of each of the last 23 grand slams, an incredible sequence dating back to 2004 when he lost in the third round at Roland Garros to Gustavo Kuerten.
Come Sunday, if Nadal goes on to reclaim his title, Federer could even lose his world No. 1 ranking, but he still managed to find some humor to lighten the mood.
“They all come to an end at some stage,” he told reporters after a lengthy wait at doping control. “You hope it doesn’t happen, but they do. I mean, it was a great run. Now I’ve got the quarter-final streak going, I guess.”
“Conditions were on the rough [side] but he came up with some great tennis,” added Federer.
Fifth-seed Soderling thoroughly deserved his victory, a reward for persistence if ever there was one.
He has clearly acquired a taste for battering egos.
“Of course, it’s nice to beat the world No. 1 two years in a row on the center court,” Sweden’s only man in the world’s top 100 told reporters. “I think both times I played really good tennis. It’s a great feeling. This is a big win, but it’s not the final.”
Soderling will start as favorite in his semi-final against Czech Tomas Berdych.
Federer had not lost a set on his serene progress into the quarter-finals and yet another Sunday showdown with Nadal was rearing headlong into view when he won the first set against Soderling with just two points dropped on his serve.
His opponent had other ideas, though. He sped into a 3-0 lead in the second set and when he served at 5-3 to level the match, he bombarded Federer’s defenses with three first serves registering 220kph plus on the speed gun.
The match hinged on the end of the third set. Federer engineered a set point at 5-4 on the Soderling serve and almost converted it with an audacious backcourt smash straight out of his box of tricks, but the Swede was equal to it.
Then, after a lengthy rain break at 5-5, Soderling returned to take charge, first breaking his opponent’s serve and then sealing the third set with a fizzing ace, one of 14 he fired down, that had Federer throwing his hands to the sky.
Soderling ran riot in the fourth set with a baseline blitz that had his Swiss opponent clinging on desperately, but the determined Swede would not relent and raised his fist in celebration when Federer wafted a backhand over the baseline.
■Jankovic makes semis
Reuters, Paris
Jelena Jankovic reached the French Open semi-finals for the third time in her career yesterday with a 7-5, 6-4 defeat of Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova.
The fourth seed was given a tough time by the world No. 36, but enjoyed some unlikely assistance from her opponent near the end of the one hour 31 minute contest.
Shvedova, who wore sunglasses, completely missed an easy smash to hand Jankovic a break of serve and level the second set at 4-4 and then served a double fault on match point down.
Serbia’s Jankovic will face either top seed Serena Williams or Samantha Stosur of Australia in the last four.
■Berdych MAKES SEMIS
Reuters, PARIS
Czech Tomas Berdych bulldozed his way past Russia’s Mikhail Youzhny 6-3, 6-1, 6-2 at the French Open on Tuesday to reach his first grand slam semi-final.
The 24-year-old, seeded 15th, fired down 36 winners as he romped past the 11th seed to set up a clash with Sweden’s Robin Soderling.
As he was against fourth-seed Andy Murray in the previous round, Berdych was simply too powerful and too accurate, leaving Youzhny scrambling in the damp conditions.
The Russian tried to mix up the patterns of play, but each time Berdych just leant into another winner and victory came after just one hour and 54 minutes.
Berdych has yet to drop a set in the tournament, but stopped short of saying whether he was playing the best tennis of his career.
“This is the question everybody likes,” he said. “It’s tough to say, because I hope not. I hope that I can still bring something more and I can keep it for a long period of time. I’m playing well, definitely. That’s right and I’m happy for it. But I just want to keep [things] a little bit lower. Kind of ‘it’s not that good and still I can bring something better for the next games.’”
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