Sometimes, a match comes down to nerves. Soderling was cruising in this match. Almost right out of the gate, Ferrer seemed despondent, thinking Soderling might overpower him. Now, Ferrer probably wasn’t thinking that. Ferrer is one of the better competitors on tour. Despite his diminutive size, he is quick and chases down lots of balls.
Soderling won the first set easily, 6-2, and was up a break in the second. Then, after a rally where a ball was overruled, Soderling got upset, and eventually gave the break back. From then on, his game seemed up and down, and he gave a second break, and the second set, 7-5, to Ferrer. In the third set, Soderling seemed to turn it around and win handily, 6-2.
But the fourth set, Soderling got down a break, and when he was down break points, he didn’t seem eager to fight his way out of it, and lost the fourth set, 6-3, on his serve. This meant David Ferrer would open the fifth set.
Credit Soderling for mentally hanging in there. This was a perfect match for Soderling to fold. Soderling, overall, should have more power that Ferrer can handle, and if he’s playing his normal game, Ferrer is hard-pressed to beat him. Yet, the two were on serve, with Ferrer threatening to take the match, especially at 5-4, 0-30 on Soderling’s serve. Soderling pulled himself out of that game, to get to 5-all.
Soderling then pulled out a new racquet, and that seemed to give him confidence. He played aggressive on Ferrer’s serve, getting him down 0-40 and eventually securing the break. Soderling then went up 40-15 on his own serve, but gave up the next point in a rally, and double-faulted to deuce. Soderling would then play two more good points and win the match.
This was a match that probably should have concluded more quickly, but Soderling was struggling with his own game. Eventually, he held it together enough to secure the match.
Meanwhile, Andy Roddick found himself in yet another tiebreak against Yen-Hsun Lu who had taken sets 2 and 3 and was looking for the upset in set 4. They are now in a fifth set. Roddick hadn’t broken Lu since the first set, and Lu hasn’t broken Roddick at all. Lu had some looks at breaking Roddick, but it didn’t happen. The fifth set is played without a tiebreak. So that might favor Roddick, but it’s been a much tighter match than expected.
Finally, Rafael Nadal is up a set, 6-4, over Paul-Henri Mathieu. Mathieu had break points to get a 2-0 lead, but it didn’t happen, and then he got broken soon after. They are in the second set, early on.
Meanwhile, Andy Murray beat Sam Querrey in straight sets: 7-5, 6-3, 6-4. Querrey will probably look at the match with missed opportunities. Up next for Murray is Tsonga. Tsonga beat Murray in the first round of the Australian Open in 2008, and took that win to the finals where he lost to Djokovic.
Federer will play Tomas Berdych in the quarterfinals. Djokovic is awaiting the Lu-Roddick winner. Soderling is awaiting the winner of Nadal-Mathieu.
