Huge Upset at French Open Tennis
Rafael Nadal went into his match against Robin Soderling on the back of a 31 match win streak at Roland Garros, in fact he had never lost on the Paris clay. This all changed as Soderling pulled off one of the biggest upsets in Grand Slam history enroute to a 6-2 6-7(2) 6-4 7-6(2) victory over the King of Clay.
Nadal went into the match with a 3-0 head-to-head record against the Swede and had won 6-1, 6-0 earlier this season on clay at the Rome Masters. This all counted for nothing as Soderling was way too good in the fourth round match against the four-time defending champion.
When asked what went wrong in the after match press conference Nadal said “I playedvery short, you know. I play veryshort. I didn’t play great”. He gave full credit to Soderling who played too consistently for Nadal.
Nadal went on to say “So was my fault, and more than ‑‑ well, sure, he did well. He did very well, but I didn’t ‑‑ yeah,I think I didn’t play my best tennis. And I didn’t play not my best tennis, no? I didn’t play my tennis, and for that reasonI lose. That’s it.”
The loss for Nadal opens the door for Roger Federer. We all know that the French Open title is one he really wants in order to complete a career grand slam. Nadal has stood in his way the past four tournaments having defeated Federer in the semis in 2005 and then in the final in 2006-08.
Federer himself is probably just thinking about his next match against Tommy Haas and would not look too far ahead. If we do look ahead Federer will have either Andy Roddick or Gael Monfils as his quarterfinal opponent. Beyond that Juan Martin Del Potro or Jo-Wilfried Tsonga could be a semifinal opponent. In the top half of the draw Andy Murray is the top seeded player still in that half of the draw.
Do you think Federer will finally get his French Open title. Leave a comment below.
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