Match report

Robin Söderling © Tennistalk.com
ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament
Semi final
2/23/08 1 2 Tot
se  Robin Söderling 6 6 2
fr  Gilles Simon 2 1 0
Gilles Simon © Tennistalk.com

  • Söderling Crushes Simon, Advances to Rotterdam Final

    2/24/08 2:28 AM | Ricky Dimon
    Robin Söderling, recently back from a six-month absence, suddenly finds himself in an ATP final after mowing down Gilles Simon in the semifinals of the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament.

    Robin Söderling crushed Gilles Simon 6-2, 6-1 in just 50 minutes on Saturday to advance to the final of the ABN World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam, Netherlands.

    Simon came into this match on an unprecedented hot streak. He reached the quarterfinals last week in Marseille and did not lose a single set en route to this semifinal showdown in Rotterdam, but the Frenchman was unable to maintain anywhere close to the same level against Söderling. Simon just could not hang with his opponent from the baseline, but—to his credit—he at least tried to mix things up in order to get back in the match. Coming into the net, however, simply did not work. His volleys were nowhere near good enough for such a tactic to be effective against Söderling.

    The Swede, of course, had a lot to do with it. He virtually could not miss with his passing shots and dominated Simon in all other facets of the game as well. As he has been doing all week, Söderling utterly dominated with his serve. He lost just seven points on it throughout the entire match. Perhaps even more impressively, Söderling capitalized on every single one of his five break-point opportunities.

    “We played many long rallies, which I had to win,” said Söderling. “Simon is the type of player you have to beat - he simply doesn’t make any mistakes.” While that is being a bit too generous considering his opponent’s deteriorating standard on Saturday, Söderling spoke the truth in that he took advantage of the fact that Simon showed no kind of offensive game and completely dictated play.

    In the final Söderling will meet Michael Llodra, a 7-5, 7-6(4) winner over Ivo Karlovic in the semifinals. Llodra will be competing in his second final of the young 2008 season, having already won the season-opening title in Adelaide. This the first-ever head-to-head clash between Söderling and Llodra.

  • Thumbs up

    Söderling takes a stunning 55-23 indoor match record into Sunday’s final

  • Thumbs down

    Simon started off poorly and only got worse

Tell a friend »

Other articles related to the tournament

Click here fore more articles

Comments


Write comment

You have to be logged in to comment. If you do not have an account, click here to register. It only takes a minute and you'll be redirected back to this page.
Username:

Password:

Expekt.com offers you the widest range and best odds on all tennis matches. Click here to bet and check all the latest tennis odds from expekt.com

Did you know that... Boris Becker never won an ATP-title on clay.

Register for newsletter:

Poll

The ATP season is
Too long
Fine as it is
Too short

Poll archive

Articles - Latest commented

Blog - Latest commented

Tell a friend

Your name:

Friend's name:

Friend's email:

Other tennis links

Related articles

se  Robin Söderling fr  Gilles Simon
ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament  ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament