He may have been a last minute wildcard but Robin Soderling is very glad he showed up in Rotterdam this week as he took the title over an ailing Mikhail Youzhny 6-4, 2-0 (ret).
Youzhny, who was treated for a right hamstring injury fought as best he could but after going down an early break in the second set he decided he’d had enough. It’s not clear if he was suffering from the same injury he suffered in Melbourne or if it was also due to his long matches earlier in the week especially against Gael Monfils. For all his efforts, Youzhny will now jump up to No. 15 in the rankings and could make a run back into the top ten where he was two years ago.
Fernando Verdasco won his fourth career ATP title at the SAP Open in San Jose by outlasting Andy Roddick 3-6, 6-4, 6-4. Despite a slow start where Verdasco was broken twice in the opening set, the match came down to returning as Verdasco broke Roddick at 4-4 in the third set to go up in the set and the match.
You can check out Verdasco’s celebration here.
And yes, like Youzhny, both Verdasco and Roddick discussed both of their ongoing injuries in their press conferences. Guess we should get used to 2010 being a year of whoever can hold up physically will be in the winner’s circle.
On the women’s side, Elena Dementieva continued her run of winning top tier events by taking the Paris Indoors over an inspired Lucie Safarova 6-7(5), 6-1, 6-4. Dementieva was handed the trophy by last year’s winner, Amelie Mauresmo, who retired last year and was celebrated earlier in the week with a warm ceremony.
The big news for American fans was Melanie Oudin who posted her best ever tournament run by getting to the semis of Paris before losing a tough three set match to Dementieva. After the match, Oudin said that she doesn’t focus on being the next great American and has her own goals for the year.
With her semifinal run, Oudin jumps up to No. 42 in the world. I think she can hit top 20 by the end of the summer. What do you think?
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