The pattern was there: Robin Soderling ended Rafael Nadal's four-year reign at Roland Garros in 2009, prevented Roger Federer from reaching his 24th consecutive Grand Slam semifinal in Paris last season, and had a chance to end Novak Djokovic's 36-match unbeaten streak today in Rome. It was a headline-writer's dream come true.
But hey, who's to say that Soderling won't have another crack at a ##-0 Djokovic two weeks from now at the French?
Djokovic is now two matches away from entering the year's second major with a perfect record; he raised his 2011 mark to 35-0 with a 6-3, 6-0 win over fifth-seeded Robin Soderling. The score is somewhat deceiving in that Soderling was clearly impacted by an injury in the second set, but unlike yesterday's 6-4, 6-1 victory over Stanislas Wawrinka, Djokovic didn't take his foot off the gas for even a moment—he won the final 15 points of this highly-anticipated encounter.
Both of today's sets opened with service breaks, but that's where the similarities end. All the drama was found in the first set, the climax coming at 3-3, when Soderling earned two break chances. Djokovic was a bit on edge at this point—to the point of looking like a perfectionist, which I suppose he's entitled to do—and gave Soderling a few too many short balls. The Swede gobbled them up while showing off his unlikely guile on the soft stuff. On his second break chance, Soderling went for it all, bombing a forehand fractions wide of the corner. On the ensuing deuce point, Djokovic replied with a massive forehand of his own, which nailed the middle of the sideline. Soderling spit at the result in disgust; Djokovic would go on to hold serve, break the next game after a spate of Soderling errors, and hold at love to seal the set.
I can't blame you if you're putting Djokovic into the final already, but you'd be overlooking the one Top 5 player not yet mentioned in this post—Andy Murray. He's into his second clay-court Masters semifinal of 2011, and gave Nadal a great match in Monte Carlo. Murray should be mega-motivated for this one; not only can he put his name back into the discussion by ending Djokovic's run, but his opponent is the same man who waxed him in straights in this year's Australian Open final. And what different paths they've taken since.
—Ed McGrogan