Not to be outdone in the serving department, Roddick today recorded 22 aces to Soderling's 20. Roddick also possesses the fastest serve in the game of tennis. In 2004, Roddick set the serve speed record in hitting a 155 miles per hour serve in a Davis Cup semifinal match.
Soderling, seeded seventh, and Roddick, the top seed, both held their serves for the entire one hour and 23 minutes match. But Roddick, for all his serving greatness, saw his serve fail him in the second set tiebreaker as he would doublefault in a critical moment of the match.
Soderling, who advanced to a Saturday semifinal versus Giles Simon of France, also won the Lyon title in 2004.
“I love it here and I feel capable of winning it again because I’m playing really well at the moment,” Soderling said.
More disappointing for Roddick than today's loss could be that he failed to cement a position this week in the ATP 2008 Race to the year ending Tennis Masters Cup Shanghai to be contested the week of November 10th at Shanghai, China.
Roddick is sixth in the race but gets one final chance to score additional points to qualify for the eight player Shanghai tournament next week at the BNP Paribas Masters at Paris, France.
"He played better than me in the rallies but this was a good preparation for Bercy," said Roddick.
The popular American reached tennis' top ranking two months after his US Open title win in 2003.
Last year at the year ending Tennis Masters Cup, Roddick won two matches before losing in the round robin format to Roger Federer of Switzerland 6-2, 6-4 and then in the semifinals to to David Ferrer of Spain 6-1, 6-3.
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