When Soderling and Ferrer met for the second of their three round robin matches, the two must have gotten tired of seeing each other yet again.
This was their sixth match of the year. They met at Wimbledon where Soderling won in 5 sets fourth round. They went the distance in Bastad on clay which Soderling also won. Ferrer had an easy win in Beijing. Then, Soderling won a close in Shanghai. Ferrer beat Soderling in his home tournament, Valencia.
Both had come off of thumping losses. Soderling served poorly against Murray and Federer was not about to have his first loss to Ferrer.
One reason Ferrer does so well against Soderling is his speed. He runs fast enough and sets up fast enough to get to most of Soderling’s shots. So, the Swede sometimes goes for bigger shots and misses in the process. Having said that, Soderling does possess the bigger serve. Ferrer has to be scrappy, get to shots, and occasionally hit a few aces of his own.
Soderling got a late break in the first set and won it 7-5. It looked good at 5-3 when Soderling was serving for the match, but then got broken. Ferrer held to 5-all and then Soderling held. Ferrer looked on his way to holding again, but Soderling managed to break and take the second set 7-5 as well.
Ferrer is now 0-2. He has to hope for a few things. First, Soderling loses to Federer (and goes 1-2) and he beats Murray (so both go to 1-2) and then, I think he has to have a better win percentage than Soderling, so he’s have to beat Murray in straight sets with a score better than 7-5, 7-5. Should he win in 3 sets, Then, Murray and Soderling ought to move ahead of Ferrer because their one win would be a straight set win, and in that case, Murray would likely go in. Should Murray win, then Ferrer is, of course, out and then he should have a good shot at making the semifinals assuming Soderling doesn’t dominate Federer (the last time that happened was the 2008 French Open).
At this point, things look very good for Roger Federer, and then OK for Murray and Soderling, and mostly desperate for Ferrer.