Roddick traded aces and groundstroke winners with Soderling to reach the tiebreaker after 40 minutes of play. After going ahead
2-1 and 6-5 in the tiebreaker, Roddick lost the lead as Soderling continued to force him to hit rare slice forehands and backhands with extreme
angled groundstokes and early striking of the ball.
Up 6-5 with set point Roddick netted a backhand slice. A Soderling ace out wide left him
at 7-6. Soderling took the tiebreaker on the next point as a Roddick forehand hit the net and fell wide.
In set two Roddick doublefaulted twice to lose serve to fall behind 3-4. Walking towards his chair, Roddick cracked his racket and then handed
it to a fan which drew laughs from the pro Roddick crowd.
Seeing the finish line Soderling took the final two games quickly and never faced
a breakpoint during the match.
"He played well," Roddick said. "I fought him off, fought him off, stayed alive there in the first set. Then I got my chance at 2-0 in
the (tie)breaker and missed a couple of shots. In the second set, he got up a set... someone who's swinging that free, you give them a lead
and they're going to release even more."
"The first set (was) really important," Soderling said, "especially when it's that close. I think I was a little closer than him in the first
set. I had some breakpoints in the beginning. I had one set point at 5-4 so I think I deserved to win the first set."
Saturday in the semifinals Soderling takes on Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic.
