28th WEEK

Bastad is a tournament the closest to Robin Soderling‘s heart. The Swede [5] played there his first ever match against a famous player (qualifying match against Richard Fromberg in 2001), he’s been playing there every year since 2002, has won there more matches than anywhere else (22), this year he decided to skip the Davis Cup quarterfinal to prepare himself for this year’s edition of the SkiStar Swedish Open. And it was a correct decision, he played this weak the most impressive tennis of his career overwhelming four players, including the Top 10 guys – Berdych and Ferrer in a “who is the real No. 5” final. ‘The Toad’ has improved his H2H against ‘Pics’ to 10-4 (their fourth meeting in Bastad) and captured his 10th ATP title (20 finals), joining sixteen active players to win at least as many titles as the Swedish No. 1 #. Soderling: “I am really satisfied with the way I play, from the first point to the last point in this tournament. I played really good tennis and played my best tennis at the most important moments. It has been a dream week“.
Two 20-year-old left-handed players, Federico Del Bonis [240] and four days younger Cedrik-Marcel Stebe [197], won their first ATP matches in career at the Mercedes Cup in Stuttgart. Del Bonis even found himself in a good position to make a semifinal upset as he led with a set and a break against a former No. 1 Juan Carlos Ferrero [85], who finished the tournament as champion firing two aces in a row in the end. It was just the third tournament of the season for the 31-year-old Spaniard (underwent left knee and right wrist surgeries last year). He took an advantage of the beneficial draw – there wasn’t any seeded player in the quarter-finals, it happened just for the fourth time in the last twelve years ##.

Finals

Bastad (250)
S: (1)Robin Soderling d. (2)David Ferrer 6-2, 6-2
D: (1)R.Lindstedt/H.Tecau d. S.Aspelin/A.Siljestrom 6-3, 6-3

Stuttgart (250)
S: Juan Carlos Ferrero d. Pablo Andujar 6-4, 6-0
D: (2)J.Melzer/P.Petzschner d. (3)M.Granollers/M.Lopez 6-3, 6-4

Choker of the week:
Gael Monfils – he comfortably led in the Stuttgart first round against Victor Hanescu, who isn’t known as a comeback player, 6-2 4:2, then had two match points in the tie-break (one on serve). Hanescu won 2-6, 7-6(7), 6-4.
# Active players with at least 10 ATP titles:
67 – Roger Federer
46 – Rafael Nadal
30 – Andy Roddick
28 – Lleyton Hewitt
26 – Novak Djokovic
21 – Nikolay Davydenko
17 – Andy Murray
16 – Juan Carlos Ferrero
12 – Tommy Haas
11 – David Ferrer, Fernando Gonzalez, David Nalbandian
10 – Nicolas Almagro, James Blake, Ivan Ljubicic, Tommy Robredo, Robin Soderling 
# ATP tournaments in the XXI century without a seeded player in the quarter-finals:
2006 – Nottingham (grass)
2008 – Rotterdam (indoor hard)
2009 – Houston (clay)
2011 – Stuttgart (clay)
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1 Response to 28th WEEK

  1. Voo de Mar says:
    Bastad turned into a farewell event in Robin Soderling’s career due to the fact he was diagnosed with mononucleosis and couldn’t properly recover after the illness

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