Robin Soderling renewed his acquaintance with the city where he’s earned all of his major tennis success as the two-time French Open finalist reached the semifinals of the Paris Masters on Friday.
The Swede won a battle of elite players who will be meeting starting a week from Sunday at the World Tour Finals in London as he took out Andy Roddick 7-5, 6-4 in a match featuring a massive ace count of 33.
Soderling will play his first career semi at the Bercy arena on Saturday when he takes on French danger-man Michael Llodra, who ended the season of 2009 London champion Nikolay Davydenko 7-5, 6-1.
Soderling find it hard to explain why his game comes alive in Paris — on clay or hard-court, outdoors in the spring or inside in the grim days of winter.
“Maybe I should move over,” said the Monte Carlo-based world number five. “It’s a nice city, and I have so many good memories from here.”
“On fast surfaces he’s unbelievably difficult to break,” said the Swede.
“He’s just a tough player to play against. I’m not surprised at all, actually which he’s in the semis.” Roddick only qualified as last man into the season-ender in London.
“The last two weeks you’re kind of on pins and needles trying to qualify for this thing,” said Roddick. “It might have been a little bit of a mental let down today. That’s my fault. I should be professional enough, that’s pretty much it.”
“It certainly doesn’t get easier to qualify for these things, this time is probably about as proud as I am of making it,” said Roddick.
“I feel like I had three or four healthy months this season with getting sick and kind of the nagging injuries here and there.”
