No More Nadal
Rafael Nadal’s almost certain quest for his fifth successive French Open title have been ripped apart by Swede Robin Soderling on Sunday. In what has to be one of the greatest upsets in the history of the French Open, the undisputed king of clay had his unbroken run of 31 undefeated matches, broken. The match produced a stunning 6-2, 6-7(2/7), 6-4, 7-6 (7/2) fourth round victory for the 24 year old Swede. Only a month earlier he had lost to Nadal 6-0 6-1 at the Rome Masters and had never beaten the world number one in their three previous matchups.
Soderling’s winning formula consisted of a strong service game and a consistent, thunderously accurate forehand that continually sent winners past the usually never passable Nadal. Nadal’s shots were clearly coming up too short and his scrambling this time could not find the necessary cover to return the perfectly angled winners. Soderling was in tears after the match, since he had never been this far in a grand slam and was rightly emotional after defeating arguably the strongest clay court player in history.
Nadal had his serve broken in the fourth game, with the first set over before the crowd realised an upset could ultimately eventuate. The next set went back to Nadal after he put Soderling in place in the tie breaker. Soderling was able to break again in the third set to hold it out for 6-4 and, despite Nadal breaking early in the fourth, Soderling continually broke back and showed excellent nerves to hold off his desperate opponent.
With the departure of Nadal, the French Open is now a much wider field as all the remaining male players that this year is the best chance to head in without running into the dominant clay courter. Andy Murray, Fernando Gonzalez, Roger Federer, Nikolay Davydenko and last year’s home town hopeful Gael Monfils all remain.
