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  • Memphis Final Preview: Robin Soderling vs. Steve Darcis

    3/2/08 7:43 PM | Jonathan Morgan
    - Robin Soderling has been on absolute fire the past few weeks and has continued his great form here in Memphis. Darcis is taking the road less traveled, facing a bit of a harder path to get here.

    This is Soderling's 2nd ATP final on indoors in as many weeks. Out of 7 ATP finals events he has contested, all 7 have come under a roof. He has yet to lose serve all tournament, and break points come across about once per set. His ace-double fault count at this event is 52-5. He has been serving at at least 63% first serves all week. He has yet to lose a set.

    Steve Darcis has been sketchy on indoors for a while and isn't exactly an indoor king. This is only his second ATP final, the first being last summer on clay. With the exception of the quarterfinal drubbing of Ben Becker, every one of Darcis' matches has been a fight. He has nothing resembling the impressive serving or otherwise stats of Robin Soderling.

    Advantage Soderling.

    Soderling's game matches up perfectly with Darcis' and the Swede should really have no problem winning this match. However, Soderling's mental fragility has been on display all too often. Many times in his career he has had leads, many times he has lost due to simply losing the plot. Of his 6 finals before this, he's lost 4 of them, including to Tommy Haas at this very Memphis event back in 2006.

    Should Soderling keep his mind together as he has done greatly these past few weeks in Rotterdam and especially here in Memphis, he should destroy the Belgian. Darcis' only shot is to fight to the death and hope Soderling gets tight. Robin should take this one, and easily.

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