French Open: Can Soderling Derail Federer in Paris

Can Soderling derail the defending champion Roger Federer is the tipping question many are contemplating ahead of their clash in the men’s singles quarterfinals at the French Open today, a match that is set to get underway in just a mere hour or so.

Last year, Soderling finished runner-up to Federer in Paris – a groundbreaking achievement that went to further underscore the momentous upset of four-time defending champion Rafael Nadal in the last 16 by the Swede.

During the trophy speech, Soderling indicated that while he was willing to concede a tenth defeat to le maestro, he wouldn’t an eleventh. Said something to the effect of “nobody beats me eleven times.” 

That prediction wasn’t forthcoming as Federer went on to beat Soderling at Wimbledon and the US Open in the same year. So much for idle threats.

Overall, Federer takes a comprehensive 12-0 head-to-head edge over Soderling into their encounter. Federer also takes a 2/9 at the bookmakers going into their encounter – safely the solid favourite to win the 13th encounter between the pair.

Soderling, carrying a tempting 3/1 price, will hope it will be a lucky 13 for him to finally break the negative trend against Federer.

To some extent there is a nervous trepidation in the market he might actually come through. Why? Well, Soderling isn’t exactly winless against Federer having beaten him at the Exhibition event in Abu Dhabi at the start of the season.

Because the win came at an Exhibition event and not an ATP event, the win didn’t register in the win column on their ATP score sheet; yet, it is the last match they played against one another regardless and that is why some punters are flirting with the possibility of an upset here.

I cannot say Soderling is an outrageous bet to topple the reigning champion. He did it last year so he can very well be confident of doing so this year.

There is also the fact that Federer hasn’t been exactly on hot form this season and is increasingly more susceptible to upsets.

All this notwithstanding, beating Federer in the best-of-five sets is going to be a tough task – and this I say, even when Soderling is so obviously a better player today than he was this time last year.