Soderling marches on

 

Originally published on: 26/02/10 12:32

The 24-year-old Swede recorded arguably the biggest upset in the tournament’s history on Sunday by knocking out world number one and four-time defending champion Rafael Nadal.

And he was in equally imperious form again on Tuesday to see off Davydenko 6-1 6-3 6-1 on Suzanne Lenglen court and claim his place in the semi-finals, where he will face either Andy Murray or Fernando Gonzalez.

While some people expected his level to dip, he clearly had other ideas and produced another masterclass of mighty groundstrokes to triumph in just an hour and 41 minutes.

The world number 25 raced through the first set, breaking his Russian opponent twice to wrap it up 6-1 in just 23 minutes.

The second set was a much tighter affair, with the first six games going with serve.

But Soderling, who headed into the contest buoyed by having beaten Davydenko in three of their five previous meetings – including both times on clay, then took control.

He broke the world number 11 in game seven, survived a double-fault in a hard-fought game to consolidate at 5-3 and then rounded off the set with a second break.

Davydenko also enjoyed an impressive victory on Sunday, seeing off eighth seed Fernando Verdasco 6-2 6-2 6-4, but the shellshocked Russian was thoroughly outplayed by Soderling in the third set.

He managed only one further game in the match – his first service game – as Soderling clinched an impressive victory.

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