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2/25/08 3:50 AM | Ricky Dimon
Michael Llodra battles past Robin Söderling in Sunday’s final of the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament to capture his second title in less than two full months this season.
An accomplished doubles player, Michael Llodra vowed to concentrate more on singles in 2008. It’s already paying off.
Llodra won his second title of the young season on Sunday, defeating Robin Söderling 6-7(3), 6-3, 7-6(4) in the final of the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam, Netherlands.
Both players came into this match riding sensational hot streaks, so it was no surprise that the first set proved to be a fiercely competitive one. Neither Söderling nor Llodra faced a single break point and the Swede fired ten aces in the opening frame to help him take it 7-3 in the tiebreaker.
Serves were not as dominant in the second set. Llodra got broken once, but the Frenchman took advantage of both break points he had against Söderling’s serve to level the match.
The decisive third set closely resembled the first. Llodra lost just nine points in six service games and Söderling dropped just seven in that span on his serve, although he did have to fend off one break point. It all came down to just one mini-break in the final tiebreaker. Söderling double-faulted at 3-4 and that allowed Llodra to serve out the match from 5-4 to 7-4. The Frenchman was near-flawless up a net throughout the afternoon and he hit an incredible half-volley to set up championship point. In typical fashion, Llodra closed out the match and the tournament with an un-returnable serve.
Söderling recognized the significance of just one or two points here and there. “In a match like this a few points decide everything,” he said. “Michael played really well on the important points and he deserved to win.”
”It's the biggest title of my career so far,“ said Llodra, who also captured the season-opening event in Adelaide just last month. ”It's for sure one of the best matches I've ever played. I came back from one set down. It's really tough to play against a player like him. I tried to stay relaxed and focus on my serve. That's a great win.“
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Avalaine, Dec 4, 2008 4:32 AM
ravikiran, Dec 4, 2008 3:49 AM
kaitepai, Dec 3, 2008 10:59 PM
kaitepai, Dec 3, 2008 10:02 PM
janhavi, Dec 3, 2008 2:51 PM
Avalaine, Dec 3, 2008 10:15 PM
Casper, Dec 2, 2008 8:23 PM
Casper, Dec 2, 2008 8:02 PM
Robin Söderling
Michael Llodra
ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament
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