Robin Soderling advances to French Open semifinals with booming forehand against Davydenko

Soderling forehand on target again at French Open

PARIS — The same big forehand that took down Rafael Nadal claimed another victim Tuesday at the French Open.

Robin Soderling, the hard-hitting Swede who pulled off one of the biggest upsets in tennis history when he eliminated four-time defending champion Nadal on Sunday, dominated Nikolay Davydenko 6-1, 6-3, 6-1 to move into the semifinals.

“I was a little bit lucky in the beginning,” said Soderling, who saved the only two break points he faced in the opening game of the match. “Instead of maybe being down 2-0, I was up 2-0.”

Soderling will play in his first major semifinal against 12th-seeded Fernando Gonzalez. The Chilean advanced by beating No. 3 Andy Murray of Britain 6-3, 3-6, 6-0, 6-4.

On the other side of the draw, three-time finalist Roger Federer plays Gael Monfils on Wednesday for a spot in the semifinals, while Juan Martin del Potro takes on Tommy Robredo.

Two days ago, Soderling ended Nadal’s perfect record at Roland Garros, beating the top-ranked Spaniard in four sets and handing him his first loss in 32 matches. He also kept the Spaniard from bettering Bjorn Borg’s streak of four straight French Open titles.

In recognition of that, Soderling got a text message from the Swedish great.

“He said, ‘Congratulations, and thank you for not letting Nadal break my record,’” Soderling said. “It was very big for me. … He’s maybe the best player of all time.”

At the start of Tuesday’s match, it looked as if Soderling’s huge win could have taken too much out of him. Serving to open the match, he gave the 10th-seeded Davydenko two chances to go up an early break. But after saving them and holding serve, the 24-year-old Swede then won the next four games, including taking 11 straight points.

“If I try to play well, he play much better,” said Davydenko, a two-time French Open semifinalist who turned 28 on Tuesday. “I didn’t play good.”

Soderling also had a break point in the first game of the second set, and three in the fifth, but Davydenko saved them all. At 3-3, however, the Russian committed four unforced errors to give Soderling the decisive break.

“It was a little bit tougher than the score was,” said Soderling, who finished with 19 forehand winners. “I knew that he was going to start playing better, and straight from the first point in the second set he actually started to play much better. So I always needed to tell myself to not lose concentration.”

After breaking Davydenko twice more in the third set, Soderling served for the match and used two more big forehands to give him three match points. The Swede wasted the first with a forehand that went long, but then he hit his fourth ace of the match to end it.

If Soderling wins the title Sunday, he would be the sixth man in the Open era to win his first clay-court tournament at the French Open.

“I don’t want to be too happy, because I have another match coming up,” Soderling said.

And that match will be against another player with a big forehand — Gonzalez.

“Some guys can hit huge forehands when they’re in the middle the court. Some guys hit huge forehand returns,” said Murray, who was playing in the quarterfinals of a clay-court tournament for only the second time. “He can hit his forehand from anywhere on the court.”

Gonzalez broke to take a 5-3 lead in the first set by sending a couple of forehand winners past Murray. The 2007 Australian Open finalist then used a couple more late in the next game to hold.

“I tried to dominate with my forehand, because I know that Andy (is) bothered a lot when the balls bounce high. He doesn’t play on clay much,” Gonzalez said.

In the second set, Murray broke to take a 4-2 lead and held to even the score at one set apiece, but he did little against Gonzalez in the third.

“He played a perfect third set,” Murray said.

Gonzalez again broke to take a 5-3 lead in the final set, and then served for the match. Murray, however, broke Gonzalez at love to get to 5-4, but his stellar play didn’t last long.

“At the end of the match I played a poor, poor game … which is not like me,” Murray said. “I got myself back into the match there and played four bad points.”

But whichever of the two advanced, the real surprise is the absence of Nadal.

“When you get to French Open, when you say ‘French Open,’ you think ‘Nadal’ immediately,” Gonzalez said. “But Robin is a great player. … If he’s (having) a good day he won’t let you play, so it’s going to be a really tough match for me.”