In a match that came down to who served better, Robin Soderling kept his winning record against Nikolay Davydenko alive as the Swede entered his first ATP finals of the year with a 7-6 (3), 6-4 win at the ABN AMRO Event in Rotterdam.
Soderling’s big serve unnerved Davydenko who had a hard time keep the big flat serves in play. Soderling jumped out to a 5-2 lead before the Russian found his game and broke back to get things to 5-5. But when the players entered the tiebreak, it was the Swede’s serving that saw him through whereas Davydenko dumped a second serve into the net to lose the tiebreak.
The second set remained close throughout until Davydenko, serving at 4-4, love-30, slipped on court trying to get to a shot and suffered a mild cut on his finger. After treatment, Davydenko got down 0-40 but managed to pull it close to 30-40. But the Russian served another double fault giving Soderling the break. Soderling then served out the second set 6-4. In the match, Soderling won 86% of first serve points.
In the second semifinal, Mikhail Youzhny almost let the moment get to him but held on to beat Novak Djokovic 7-6(5), 7-6 (6).
Djokovic played defensive tennis in the first set but managed to hang around for the tiebreak. But Youzhny raised his game, hitting a laser like backhand volley in the deep corner to move ahead 4-1. Youzhny served for it at 6-4 but let a backhand sail long to allow Djokovic to edge closer to 5-6. But Djokovic double-faulted and let the set slip away.
In the second set, Djokovic continued his sluggish play. Youzhny hit a screamer forehand crosscourt return winner to go up 4-2 in the second set. But the Russian got tight serving for it at 5-3 and let two match points slip away ending the game with a double fault.
In the tiebreak, Youzhny pushed a short volley over the baseline to give Djokovic a 3-2 lead. Djokovic had it on his racquet at 5-4 but Youzhny hit a quick backhand while Djokovic was up at net forcing the Serb’s volley long which got it to 5-5. The Serb hit another forehand long giving the Russian another match point on his serve but Youzhny hit a backhand into the net for 6-6. Youzhny finally won it when Djokovic hit a backhand long at 8-6.
Soderling leads 2-1 over Youzhny lifetime but Soderling will need to keep his big serving going if he wants to get past Youzhny who has returned strong all week.
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