Swedish player Robin Soderling achieved a rare feat of beating defending champions of the Roland Garros for the past two years. Last year, he stunned four-time champion Rafael Nadal in the fourth round. This year, he surprised everyone by beating last year’s champion Roger Federer in the quarterfinals on Tuesday 36 63 75 64.
This also ended Federer’s streak of reaching 23 straight Grand Slam semifinals or better which spanned six years.
“They all come to an end at some stage. You hope they don’t happen, but they do. It was a great run. Now I’ve got the quarter-final streak going, I guess. It’s been an amazing run,” Federer said after the loss.
Federer’s loss means that Nadal could reclaim the number one ranking by the end of the tournament.
Up next for Soderling is first-time Slam semifinalist Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic. Berdych outlasted Mikhail Youzhny of Russia in the other quarterfinal match.
“I think I played good matches in these kind of conditions in the past, and I think it suits my game pretty well. It was a little bit slower, but I managed to serve really well and take the ball early. It helped me a lot,” Soderling said.
This is Soderling’s first win against Federer in thirteen matches.
