Super Soderling outclasses Fedex
Defending champion and world number one Roger Federer was knocked out of the French Open on Tuesday suffering a staggering 3-6, 6-3, 7-5, 6-4 quarter-final defeat to Sweden’s Robin Soderling.
The Swedish fifth seed, who put out four-time winner Rafael Nadal in 2009, will face Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic who beat Mikhail Youzhny of Russia 6-3, 6-1, 6-2 in their quarterfinal.
Earlier, Francesca Schiavone became the first Italian woman to reach a Grand Slam semifinal in the Open era, shrugging off a 10-year age gap to beat third seed Caroline Wozniacki.
In a battle between the oldest and youngest players left in the draw, the 29-year-old Schiavone defeated the highly-rated Danish teenager 6-2, 6-3 to reach her first Grand Slam semi-final in her 39th successive major. She will now face Elena Dementieva, the 2004 runner-up who defeated fellow Russian Nadia Petrova in three sets, for a place in Saturday’s final.
“I tried to play long and short and be aggressive. I needed to serve well and put her under pressure. I wasn’t going to win by being defensive,” said Schiavone, who fell to her knees at the end of the match to kiss the red clay.
“I have been doing this job all of my life. It’s a very special emotion to reach the semi-finals especially when you work hard every morning, every afternoon,” added the Italian, who will enter the world’s top 10 next week.
Wozniacki had defeated Schiavone’s Fed Cup-winning teammate Flavia Pennetta in three sets in the previous round, but admitted there was a gulf in styles between the two Italians.
“She played well today just as she has done throughout the whole tournament. It was different to playing Pennetta. Schiavone puts a lot of spin on the ball, she doesn’t play typical women’s tennis,” said the teenager who was a US Open finalist in 2009.
Schiavone had already defeated her blonde opponent in straight sets in the pair’s only other previous meeting in Zurich two years ago, and was the dominant force again on Tuesday.
Schiavone settled quickly into the match despite the murky and damp conditions, breaking in the fourth and eighth games and securing the set when she drew Wozniacki to the net with a sweet drop shot. — AFP
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Mixed fortunes for Paes
Paris, June 1: Leander Paes had a mixed outing in the French Open on Tuesday as he and partner Lukas Dlouhy stormed into the semifinals of men’s doubles, but crashed out of the mixed doubles event in the quarterfinals here.
Paes and Dlouhy remained on course to defend their doubles title with a straight-set win in the quarterfinals at Roland Garros. The third-seeded Indo-Czech pair defeated eighth seeds Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski of Poland 6-1 6-3.
Paes and Dlouhy will now take on 10th seeded Austrian-Israeli pair of Julian Knowle and Andy Ram, who beat Brazilian duo of Marcelo Melo and Bruno Soares 6-7(3/7), 6-2, 6-0 in another quarterfinal match.
However, it was curtains for Paes and his Zimbabwean partner Black in the mixed doubles event after their 3-6, 7-6 (2), 7-10 loss to unseeded Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan and Julian Knowle of Austria. — PTI
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