2009 was a dark year for young Rafael. He not only did not win the French Open which is his birth right; he had the opportunity denied him before the final by an upstart called Soderling, and so saw a career Grand Slam completed by that ace from outer space who calls Switzerland home.
Since then, sanity has resumed, aside from Novak Djokovic going a little crazy in the winning department of late. Rafa is number one, he is once again the reigning Roland Garros champ, and he won the final last year against the same Robin Soderling, who was recently voted the most atypical Swedish tennis player since Mikael Pernfors. I confess that was me.
Soderling has been a little hit or miss this year but has won titles, and form coming into a Grand Slam he likes was significant. No surprise then that the 5th seed should meet Nadal in the quarters. Pity about the contest because Nadal ensured that there would not be one. Scoreboards can relate something different to what occurs on court, and the match that Soderling played, while not from his top shelf, didn't totally suck. It just could not compete with the intensity of a champion, who as Na Li had done earlier, just took all the power of shot making from his opponent, and turned it magically into something special.
Much of this came on the back of some remarkable (for humans) top spin forehands which crushed the tennis balls and Soderling's spirit. After losing a reasonably tight first set - though Nadal always looked to have in the bag - the Swede was overwhelmed 1-6 in a match defining and maybe tournament defining stanza of tennis.
Showing plenty of Scandinavian courage - which is different from other bravery I know not how - Soderling broke Rafa as he served for the match in set 3, and at 5-5 had multiple break points on Nadal's serve. The champ kept saving them, and with a game point of his own won possibly the point of the match with shots from both players world standard and the final clincher from Nadal a down the line winner etched in the memory.
At 30-30 Soderling again showed pluck as he produced on serve to guarantee a tie break, but unfortunately that only ensured a tie break for Rafa to enjoy.
Nadal in three 6-4 6-1 7-6 - playing even better tennis than Federer had in his quarter final and needing to at times because Soderling presented OK.
Next for Nadal is Murray so we have all top 4 men's seeds through to the semis and none of the 4 top women's seeds to that point.
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