Soderling haunts Nadal again

LONDON, (Reuters) – Swede Robin Soderling returned to  haunt Rafael Nadal yesterday with a 6-4 6-4 victory as battle  commenced in Group B at the ATP World Tour finals.
Nadal’s already slim chances of knocking Federer off the top  of the world rankings now hang by a thread and defeat against  Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko in the second of his three  round-robin matches on Wednesday would almost certainly mean the  Spaniard will not reach the semi-finals.

Davydenko was beaten by Serbia’s defending champion Novak  Djokovic 3-6 6-4 7-5 in a repeat of last year’s final when the  season-ending climax was staged in Shanghai.
Djokovic, the form player arriving at London’s spectacular  O2 Arena after three titles in his last four tournaments,  finally subdued the jet-heeled Russian after nearly three hours  of high-quality action before swapping shirts, soccer style,  at  the net.
Nadal’s defeat, though, was the talking point of Day Two.

Soderling, who ended Nadal’s 31-match winning streak at the  French Open this year and riled him two years ago at Wimbledon,  again proved a prickly opponent for the world number two.

Nadal said before the start of the season-ending showpiece  that he was not bothered about bridging the 945-point gap  between himself and Federer in the rankings.
What will concern him is that right now his shots lack punch  and he cannot intimidate opponents the way it once did.

Tendinitis in his knee, an injury which prevented him from  defending his Wimbledon crown this year, and the marital  problems of his parents, are both mitigating factors but he has  not won a title since May and looks strangely vulnerable.

It is all a far cry from the kind of bicep bulging tennis  that helped him claim his sixth grand slam title in Australia at  the start of the year and left a crestfallen Federer in tears.
Soderling, making his debut at the tournament courtesy of  the withdrawal of American Andy Roddick, adopted similar tactics  to those he employed to undo Nadal on Parisian clay and was a  worthy winner in one hour 38 minutes.

Quite simply he served big and then took every available  opportunity to bludgeon his forehand, a stroke that may not be  elegant but was once again too hot for Nadal to handle.
“My level right now is not number one, no?” Nadal told  reporters. “He is a big player on this surface and if you are  not completely calm and playing well in the important moments  it’s difficult. I’m not far away from my best level but I need  more confidence.”

THREE MARRIAGE
PROPOSALS
Another near sell-out crowd gathered inside the vast,  dimly-lit 17,500-capacity arena but the Rafa banners, including  one held by three young girls asking for his hand in marriage,  were rarely waved as he struggled to get on top of an opponent  clearly enjoying being part of the razzamatazz.

Soderling angered Nadal at Wimbledon two years ago when he  immitated the Spaniard’s habit of tugging at his shorts but he  denied any personal grudge against the Mallorcan.

“Sure, it feels better to beat the world number two than the  number 200,” the 25-year-old Soderling, who lost to Federer in  his maiden grand slam final in Paris in June, told reporters.

“I always enjoy beating good players than lower ranked  player but, personally, I have nothing against Rafa. We’ve  played a lot of times and we always had good matches.”

It was Soderling’s backhand that allowed him to break  Nadal’s opening service game although he did surrender the  advantage at 3-1 with a forehand error.
There was a time when unforced errors from the Nadal racket  were as rare as British grand slam champions but he offered up  two wayward forehands when serving at 4-5 to drop the first set.

Nadal, did break first in the second set thanks to an  untimely Soderling double fault but the expected charge did not  materialise and Soderling hit back immediately as the Spaniard’s  forehand again malfunctioned.

Soderling tightened the screws in the 10th game, eking out a  match point that Nadal saved after some tentative play from  Soderling. However, he earned another chance with a crunching  crosscourt winner and this time Nadal ballooned a backhand over  the baseline.