Robin Soderling won the title at the ABN-AMRO World Tennis in just 54 minutes when injured Russian opponent Mikhail Youzhny had to quit, handing over a 6-4, 2-0 victory to the Swede.
Soderling, ranked eighth, became the first from his proud tennis nation to claim the Dutch honours at Rotterdam since Anders Jarryd in 1993.
The win was the second bite of the cherry for Soderling, 25, who lost the final two years ago to Michael Llodra.
Youzhny, the 2007 champion, was treated on court on his right hip trailing 4-1 in the opening set before playing on. But after losing his serve in the second set, he decided to pack it in.
“I’m sorry I could not finish,” said the number 20. “I couldn’t move so well. I had been hoping to do better today.” Soderling said this week indoors had turned his game around after failing to win a match in his first two outings in 2010 at Chennai and the Australian Open.
“I didn’t start so well in the first few matches but I worked with my coach and my game is back.
“I’m playing really well once more. I feel perfect again. It was a good week for me but a bit up and down.” Soderling broke three times in the opening set while dropping his own serve twice. But once Youzhny was stretched out on court for his treatment, it became just a matter of time for Soderling to proceed to his fifth win of the season against two defeats. He stands 3-1 over Youzhny, winning their last three contests.
Youzhny was playing his fifth final in his last eight events while Soderling last lifted a title in July at home on clay in Bastad. Soderling and Youzhny had combined to knock out the tournament top two in the semi-finals.
The Swede defeated Nikolay Davydenko in the afternoon while Youzhny had to world hard over three evening sets and more than two hours to dismiss top seed and world number two Novak Djokovic.
