Robin Soderling, ranked number 4 in the world, reached that rank by playing consistently well in Slams and Masters 1000 events.  He hasn’t, however, won that many tournaments.  Last year, he won Rotterdam (over Youzhny) and he won Paris.  That was it.

This year, barely a month into the new year, Soderling has won two titles already, winning Brisbane, before the Australian Open, and winning Rotterdam.  Last year, he beat Youzhny who retired partway through.  This year, he played Tsonga, and needed 3 sets for the win, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.

At San Jose, del Potro was trying to make it to his first final since reaching that ATP World Tour Final back in 2009.  However, Verdasco was just a little too much.  Verdasco hadn’t dropped a serve all tournament, but he finally dropped serve against del Potro.  Not that it mattered since he broke serve in each set to a 6-4, 6-4 win.  Verdasco will face surprise finalist, Milos Raonic.  Raonic came out of nowhere to reach the fourth round of the Australian Open where he lost to David Ferrer.

Verdasco, the veteran, should be favored.  However, Verdasco can be erratic, especially mentally.  He played well during the clay season in 2010, but exhausted himself by playing more clay events than Rafa, and had an indifferent second half of the year.  He is, perhaps, on his way back.

Raonic will depend on his huge serve to try to keep even with Verdasco and hope to keep things close and win a tiebreak here or there.

The Brasil Open concluded on Saturday with Almagro beating Dolgopolov in straight sets.