World No. 58 Michael Llodra of France and 59th-ranked Swede Robin Soderling will fight for the title of the 824,000-euro ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, after they both scored straight-set victories in Saturday's semifinals.
In the first semifinal, Llodra won a hard fought victory, 7-5, 7-6 (4), against big serving 24th-ranked Croatian Ivo Karlovic, the highest ranked player left in the tournament.
Although Karlovic served 16 aces, Llodra managed to break him in the crucial 11th game of the first set before winning 7-5. The second set went to a tiebreaker, which was won by Llodra 7-4.
This will be the second final of the year for Llodra, who had won in Adelaide just before the Australian Open.
In the final, he will take on Soderling, who is on a comeback after being sidelined for six months by a left wrist injury since last August.
Soderling easily disposed of 36th-ranked Frenchman Gilles Simon 6-2, 6-1 in just 50 minutes to reach his sixth ATP final.
The Swede is bidding for his third ATP title, and the first since 2005 in Milan.
All the eight seeds, including five of the world's top 10 players, have failed to reach the quarterfinals of the Dutch hard court tournament, which is in its 35th edition.
Source: Xinhua
|
Comment
Tell A Friend
Print Format
Save Article