The day started off well enough. Soderling held, then immediately broke Nadal, then broke him again. Eventually, up 4-0, he was broken and won the set, 6-3. That break seemed to indicate that Nadal was back.
In the second set, Soderling challenged a call on an “out” ball and it was called in. The umpire, Pascal Maria, claimed Nadal would not have gotten the ball, but Nadal said he hit the ball, so they should play the point again. This anger seemed to light a fire under Nadal, and he took the second set, 6-3. He got another break early in the third set. When he was ready to serve for the set, Soderling called for a trainer to replace the bandages on his feet.
Nadal had been criticized in his match against Petzschner for calling a trainer and upsetting Petzschner’s rhythm. Nadal bristled at the thought saying that he doesn’t call a trainer unless he’s hurt. With the shoe on the other foot, Nadal double-faulted twice and eventually lost serve. Each player held serve to the tiebreak. Soderling got behind a mini-break early and Nadal never lost serve, taking the third set, 7-4. Finally, Nadal ran away with the fourth set, 6-1.
In this match, after the first set, Soderling never looked that comfortable. Nadal wasn’t playing so well himself, but he stayed aggressive and kept more balls in play. Soderling looked to be a level beneath how he played at the French, closer to the way he played against David Ferrer, and that’s not enough to beat Nadal.
Nadal will face the winner of Murray-Tsonga. Tsonga took the first set in a tiebreak and Murray took the second in a tiebreak despite having an early break in the second set (Tsonga broke back). Murray is now up double-break in the third set as Tsonga’s game seems to be getting a bit more error-prone.
Berdych will face Djokovic in the other semifinal.
