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2/18/11 4:44 AM | Ricky Dimon
Robin Soderling and Mikhail Youzhny reach the Marseille quarterfinals on Thursday. They score hard-fought wins over Nicolas Mahut and Gilles Simon, respectively.
(1) Robin Soderling d. (WC) Nicolas Mahut 7-6(8), 7-6(5)
Soderling passed a stern test from Mahut and advanced to the quarterfinals of the Open 13 after one hour and 41 minutes of play on Thursday. Although Soderling got the job done in straights, this one could have gone either way. Mahut missed two break chances in the first set but still pushed his opponent to a tiebreaker. The 89th-ranked Frenchman fought off a set point at 6-7 while Soderling survived down 5-6 and 7-8. Soderling finally seized a rare mini-break at 9-8 to close out the set.
The fourth-ranked Swede seemed to take complete control when he broke for a 2-1 lead in the second. Suddenly, though, he gave it right back for 2-2 and from there the set progressed to another tiebreaker. This time mini-breaks came left and right, as Mahut stormed to a 5-2 advantage and two serves. The underdog squandered both service points and ended up losing five in a row to lose the 'breaker--and the match--seven points to five. Soderling moves on to a quarterfinal showdown with Michael Llodra in a rematch of last year's epic Paris Maters semi.
(3) Mikhail Youzhny d. Gilles Simon 3-6, 6-4, 6-3
Youzhny recovered from a set deficit to defeat Simon in the Marseille second round on Thursday. This one was a back-and-forth affair right from the start. Youzhny went up an early break in the first set but then completely collapsed. Simon leveled the score at 3-3, got another break for 5-3, and finished things off on serve one game later.
The 33rd-ranked Frenchman, however, served horribly the rest of the way and that proved to be the difference. Simon simply could not win second-serve points, of which he had to play a ton throughout sets two and three. Youzhny earned two breaks in both the second and third, so it mattered little that he donated his own serve once in set two. The third-seeded Russian, who lost a mere two points in his last four service games, finished off the proceedings at 5-3 with his fifth break of the day. Next up for Youzhny is No. 6 seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
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