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  • Söderling, Wawrinka Still Scorching Hot

    5/29/08 10:43 PM | Ricky Dimon
    - Robin Söderling and Stanislas Wawrinka remain two of the hottest players on the ATP Tour, both making to the French Open third round on Thursday. They are joined there by the surprising Robby Ginepri, who upset Igor Andreev.

    Robin Söderling d. Paul Capdeville 6-3, 6-2, 6-4

    13th-seed Juan Monaco was no match for Söderling in round one, so it's no surprise that Paul Capdeville, ranked way down at No. 141, put up little resistance on Thursday. Söderling, who has been on fire for most of 2008 after returning from injury after the Australian Open, made short work of the Chilean in thee sets over one hour and 41 minutes. The Swede simply had far too much firepower for his more defensive opponent off the forehand side and with his serve. Söderling fired 12 aces in just 13 service games and saved eight of Capdeville's nine break-point opportunities. He awaits either Alejandro Falla or Julien Benneteau in round three.

    Stanislas Wawrinka d. Marin Cilic 7-6(3), 7-6(4), 6-1

    Wawrinka is almost as hot if not hotter than Söderling right now. He reached the semifinals in Barcelona and finished runner-up to Novak Djokovic at the Masters Series Rome and he has picked things up in Paris right where he left off. After cruising past Philipp Kohlschreiber in straight sets, Wawrinka sent Cilic home in straight sets on Thursday. Cilic, a 6'5'' Croat, managed to take the first to sets to tiebreakers, but the 19-year-old disappeared quickly in the third. Cilic's only real hope was to serve huge, but he put in just 46 percent of his first deliveries and he has as many double-faults (six) as aces. Wawrinka has a blockbuster third-round showdown coming up with Np. 24 seed Fernando Gonzalez.

    Robby Ginepri d. (27) Igor Andreev 6-4, 2-6, 7-6(5), 6-2

    Andreev has not been as stellar on the clay in 2008 as he sometimes is, but he had never lost before the third round of any French Open. Ginepri, on the other hand, had not won a single match at Roland Garros in five previous appearances. But the American is now 2-0 this year after stunning Andreev in four sets. It wasn't exactly a flawless match and the 27th-seeded Russian really looked out of sorts, striking just 18 winners while spraying 45 unforced errors. Ginepri had a mere 13 winners compared with 35 errors, but he came up with the goods on the big points during the third-set tiebreaker and rolled after that as Andreev faded. In fairness to both players, the stats do not do justice to the quality of play since both men are grinders and make it extremely difficult for opponents to chalk up clean winners. Ginepri made good use of his better all-court game, coming to net 29 times and winning 24 (83 percent) of those points. Andreev, as usual, remained content to slug it out with topspin from the baseline. Next up for Ginepri in what is guaranteed to be an all-unseeded affair is either Victor Hanescu or Florent Serra.

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