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  • Rotterdam Championship Preview: Robin Söderling vs. Michael Llodra

    2/23/08 10:16 PM | Ricky Dimon
    - Michael Llodra will be contesting his second ATP final of the young season when he faces surging Robin Söderling on Sunday in the final of the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament.

    The Rotterdam final will feature two men who are playing some of their best tennis right now in Robin Söderling and Michael Llodra. This will be the fist-ever head-to-head meeting between these two contestants, who are right next to each other in the world rankings (Llodra is 58th and Söderling is 59th).

    Judging by Söderling’s current form, he would be a lot higher than No. 59 in the world had it not been for a wrist injury that sideline him from August until last week’s Open 13 in Marseille. It was there that Söderling started his comeback in impressive fashion, upsetting upset Jarkko Nieminen and second-seeded Richard Gasquet before falling to eventual runner-up Mario Ancic in the quarterfinals.

    If he was good that week, Söderling has been positively on fire this week in Rotterdam. He went to three sets with eighth-seeded Marcos Baghdatis in the first round before embarking on a run of complete domination. The Swede crushed Fernando Verdasco 6-4, 6-1, destroyed in-form Andreas Seppi 6-3, 6-2, then blew out Gilles Simon 6-2, 6-1 in Saturday’s semifinals.

    Llodra has not been as dominant in Rotterdam as Söderling, but the Frenchman has been solid throughout his early 2008 campaign. In the past Llodra has been more of a doubles specialist, but heading into this season he vowed to focus on singles. While it would be premature to suddenly recognize him as a consistent singles force, the new attitude is already paying off for Llodra. Reviving the near-extinct serve-and-volley game, the Frenchman has relied on a big lefty serve and a propensity for following that weapon into the net to get him into two ATP finals so far this season. This is his second appearance, having captured the season-opening tournament in Adelaide by defeating Jarkko Nieminen in the title match.

    Llodra has been just as impressive this week in Rotterdam. He beat Raemon Sluiter 6-1, 7-6 in the first round, upset second-seeded Nikolay Davydenko 6-3, 7-5 in the second, took out local favorite Robin Haase 7-6, 7-6 in the quarterfinals, then pulled off a 7-5, 7-6(4) win over Ivo Karlovic to reach the final.

    Llodra has lost serve just once this entire tournament and he has not been broken since the first set of his win over Davydenko in the second round. He’ll have to keep that up if he does want to suffer the fate of most players who face Söderling indoors. The Swede is 55-23 in his indoor career compared to just 72-75 outdoors.

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