Federer & Soderling have pulled out of the Shanghai Masters, Djokovic expected to join them on the sidelines.

World number three Roger Federer has pulled out of the Shanghai Masters to “rest and recuperate” after the north American swing of the ATP Tour. Federer, 30, reached the semi-finals at the recent US Open, where he squandered two match points before losing to Novak Djokovic, and then flew straight to Sydney to play for Switzerland in their Davis Cup tie with Australia. The 16-time grand slam champion said: “After consultation with my team, I’ve unfortunately decided to pull out of the Shanghai Masters in order to take some necessary time to rest and recuperate after a long summer. “I have some nagging injuries that I need to address and I look forward to returning to the ATP World Tour as soon as possible. “I have very fond memories of Shanghai so I will miss this amazing tournament and all my loyal Chinese fans, but I look forward to returning to China next fall.” Robin Soderling joins Roger Federer on the sidelines for the mandatory Shanghai Masters 1000 tournament, which begins October 9. Federer says he is tired after a long summer and Soderling is not over his case of mono. Novak Djokovic is also questionable.

Federer is scheduled to return to action at the end of October at his hometown tournament in Basle.

The #6 and #10 seeds are gone in week #1.

Robin Soderling withdrew from the U.S. Open because of illness. The Swede was scheduled to face qualifier Louk Sorensen in the first round Wednesday. “Lucky loser” Rogerio Dutra da Silva of Brazil took his spot. His agent said in a statement that Soderling started feeling “really bad” Tuesday night with stomach pain and a headache. A doctor recommended he not play. Soderling had not played since withdrawing from Montreal with a wrist injury in early August.

“Wrist is feeling better. Travelling to NY tomorrow,” he tweeted Aug. 21. Soderling missed Cincinnati because of a throat problem that agent Nina Wennerstrom said might be related to the virus that sidelined him in New York. He won at Bastad in his last tournament in mid-July. The two-time French Open runner-up reached the quarterfinals at Flushing Meadows last year to equal his best result.

Julien Benneteau powered his way through to the second round, eliminating No. 10 seed Nicolas Almagro in his bid for the 2011 US Open. Armed with a rocket for a serve, the Frenchman bested the Spanish clay-court specialist in straight sets, 6-2, 6-4, 6-3. The match was evenly contested from the baseline, but the deciding factor proved to be service games and break-point chances. Benneteau fared better in both categories, capitalizing on a 62 percent first-serve percentage and converting on 6-of-10 break-point chances. Almagro, on the other hand, faltered, as his first serve let him down throughout the match (49 percent) and he failed convert on break point opportunities. The 10th seed went 1-of-13 in those critical moments.

 

 

 

Roddick & Soderling withdraw from Montreal’s Rogers Cup

Andy Roddick has pulled out of next week’s Montreal Masters with an oblique muscle injury. It’s the second consecutive week he has withdrawn from an event. The Montreal Gazette also reported that fifth-ranked Robin Soderling (wrist), Jurgen Melzer (quad), Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (appendicitis) and Xavier Malisse (personal) also withdrew from the tournament. The 12th-ranked Roddick has been hampered by injuries during the past two years, and just two months ago was forced to pull out of Roland Garros with a shoulder injury. Feliciano Lopez upset the former world No. 1 in the third round of Wimbledon, and playing in the Davis Cup quarterfinals against Spain in his hometown of Austin, Roddick lost to David Ferrer. The American has not played since then and pulled out of Washington this week. Roddick also pulled out of Canada last year, so he isn’t defending any points. He is defending 360 semifinal points in Cincinnati the week after, and just entered the inaugural tournament in Winston-Salem, which is played the week before the U.S. Open. Responding to when he will return on Twitter, Roddick said. “Hopefully I’ll be ready for cincy in 10 days or so…. Fingers crossed.”

 

Robin Soderling defeated David Ferrer 6-2, 6-2 on Sunday to capture his second Swedish Open title.

World No. 5 Soderling, appearing in his third straight Bastad final, earned 250 South African Airways 2011 ATP Rankings points and €72,600 in prize money, with victory in just 69 minutes. It was his fourth ATP World Tour title of the season. He is now 10-10 overall in title matches. The start of pair’s 14th meeting was delayed due to rain, but at 4:33 p.m. local time, action got underway on Centre Court. Soderling broke Ferrer to 15 in the first game and to 30 in the seventh game, before he clinched the 30-minute opener when Ferrer hit a backhand return into the net. Soderling lost five points on his serve and hit three aces in the first set.

Soderling could have taken a 5-0 second-set lead, but Ferrer saved three break points before securing his fifth game point. The Spaniard, who beat Nicolas Almagro for the 2007 title, broke Soderling to 15 in the next game. But Soderling regained his composure to break serve for a fifth time in the match. An ace, followed by a forehand winner earned Soderling his 38th match win of the year. The 26-year-old Soderling lost just 13 games in four matches at the ATP World Tour 250 clay-court tournament this week. In 2009, he beat Juan Monaco for the title and was runner-up to Almagro last year.

Soderling will face Berdych for a place in Sunday’s Swedish Open final.

Local favourite Robin Soderling eased into the semi-finals of the Swedish Open with a 6-3 6-4 victory over number eight seed Potito Starace. The top-seeded Swede lost just 10 points on serve all match, and will now face third-seed Tomas Berdych for a place in Sunday’s final. 2010 Wimbledon runner up Berdych enjoyed an equally-comfortable passage into the last four as he ousted Slovenia’s Blaz Kavcic 6-1 6-4.

World number six David Ferrer also advanced by beating Austria’s Andreas Haider-Maurer 6-1 6-1. The Spanish right-hander will meet compatriot Nicolas Almagro for a place in the final after he defeated Sweden’s Andreas Ryderstedt 6-4 7-6 (7-4). Defending champion Almagro and Ryderstedt both had to complete their second-round matches earlier on Friday after they were suspended because of rain. Ryderstedt beat Spain’s Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo 6-4 6-2 and Almagro defeated fellow Spaniard Guillermo Olaso 6-2 6-3.

The youngest player in the field, Bernard Tomic stunned fifth seed Robin Soderling in straight sets.

The 18-year-old won 6-1 6-4 7-5 in one hour and 52 minutes on court one in a massive upset against the ailing Scandinavian. The victory, which carries Tomic into the round of 16 for the first time in his career, is also likely to result in the current world No.158 cracking into the top 100 rankings.

The Queenslander said he couldn’t believe that he had reached the second week at the All England Club. “I’d love to believe it, but, you know, it’s a new feeling for me,” he said. “It’s the first time I’ve experienced playing the second week. “It’s a whole new feeling for me … I’m sure I’ll get used to it.” Tomic will play Xavier Malisse in the round of 16 on Monday. “I’ll always remember this is the first time I’ve really done well at a grand slam,” he said. “I think the way I’ve been playing is really good. “If I can keep it up like this, who knows.”

Soderling met an Australian for the second straight match at Wimbledon following his five-set second round win over Lleyton Hewitt. Hewitt’s coach Tony Roche started providing the Tomic camp with tips on Soderling’s game only minutes after the youngster booked the third round match on Friday.

Tomic stunned Soderling and the court 1 crowd by claiming the first set in just 17 minutes. The big Swede screamed in frustration after slipping to 4-0 down with less than 10 minutes on the board and his mood didn’t improve when Tomic produced a brilliant a lob volley serving for the set. Tomic mixed up his pace and used his slice to keep the ball low and out of the powerful Scandinavian’s hitting zone. He made Soderling look like a park player in the opening set and enjoyed a two-set lead not that long after the hour mark. Soderling improved as the match wore on but Tomic kept on frustrating him and broke the Swede’s serve again for a 6-5 lead in the final set. Serving for the match, he started to get a little tense but pulled himself over the line and celebrated the victory by raising both fists in the air and enjoying a standing ovation.

 

Robin Soderling fell victim to the highest-profile surprise of the men’s draw so far as he lost 6-1 6-4 7-5 to Australian teenager Bernard Tomic.

The Swede, a quarter-finalist in 2010, appeared to be suffering from dizziness as he lost the opener in 17 minutes. Tomic, 18, kept firing groundstrokes as he secured the solitary break in the fifth game of the second set. The upset was complete when the qualifier broke late on in the third before holding his nerve to serve out.

“I had to play very well to win,” said Tomic in the wake of his victory. “It is probably the greatest achievement of my career so far, I’m really happy. “I looked very calm but inside I was bursting. I could see he was getting frustrated and I knew I just had to stay calm.” Tomic, whose best previous run in a Grand Slam ended in a third-round defeat to world number one Rafael Nadal at the 2011 Australian Open, will play either Jurgen Melzer or Xavier Malisse in the last 16.

Tomic began the tournament 153 ranking places adrift of Soderling, but the gap is certain to close after a crowd-pleasing win on Court One.

 

Soderling finally edged past Fernando Verdasco 2-6 7-5 6-4 in a two hour and 42 minute epic.

Robin Soderling saved three match points before winning his second-round clash at the Rome Masters on Tuesday. Soderling had made a disastrous start, slipping a double-break down and sacrificing the opening set, and looked down and out in the second when Verdasco served for the match before rallying for an unlikely win.

Seventh seed Tomas Berdych eased past Argentina’s Juan Monaco 6-2 6-2, while 16th seed Richard Gasquet needed just 62 minutes to beat Russian qualifier Igor Andreev 6-1 6-2. Lucky loser Jarkko Nieminen also advanced to round three. In first-round action, Marin Cilic won his all-Croatian battle with Ivo Karlovic when Karlovic was forced to retire with a back problem trailing 6-4 1-0.

Kevin Anderson also withdrew injured when he trailed 7-6 (7-1) 1-0 to Sam Querrey. Ninth seed Nicolas Almagro marked his debut in the world’s top 10 with an emphatic 6-0 7-5 win over Italian wild card Simone Bolelli, taking the first set in just 22 minutes.

Fourteenth seed Stanislas Wawrinka came from behind to beat Fabio Fognini 6-7 (7-5) 6-2 6-4, while Ivan Ljubicic, Juan Ignacio Chela and Feliciano Lopez were also first-round winners.

 

Del Potro defeats Soderling to advance to the semi final in Estoril.

Juan Martin Del Potro battled back after a rain delay to dump out top seed Robin Soderling and book a semi-final berth at the Estoril Open in Portugal today. The former US Open champion, on the comeback trail after missing most of the 2010 season due to injury, took the first set 6-4 but trailed 1-4 in the second when the match was disrupted. Del Potro returned after the delay to reel off six of the next seven games and wrap up a 6-4 7-5 success in just under two hours. Del Potro will meet Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas in the semi-finals after Cuevas produced a strong performance to defeat Thomasz Bellucci of Brazil 6-4 6-2 in their 79-minute match.

South Africa’s Kevin Anderson won a first set tie-break 7-6 (7-2) over Fernando Verdasco when their match was suspended due to darkness. Gilles Simon of France led Canada’s Milos Raonic 6-5.

In the women’s event, Germany’s Kristina Barrois reached the second WTA Tour final of her career with a 7-6 (7-2) 6-4 win over Johanna Larsson of Sweden. In the final Barrois will meet Spanish clay-court expert Anabel Medina Garrigues, who needed just 89 minutes to defeat Monica Niculescu of Romania 6-1 6-3.

 

Soderling will meet Argentina’s eighth seed Juan Martin Del Potro in the last eight.

Third seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga was a surprise second round casualty as he fell 6-2 7-6 (7-0) to Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas. Next up for Cuevas is Brazil’s Thomasz Bellucci, who beat Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France 6-3 5-7 7-5.

Top seed Robin Soderling continued to shrug off some recent patchy form as he produced a big-serving performance to beat Jeremy Chardy and advance to the quarter-finals of the Estoril Open. Despite a struggle in the second set, Swede Soderling – who has already bagged three ATP Tour titles this year, regrouped and lost just two points on serve in the final set of a 6-1 6-7 (7-4) 6-1 win. Soderling will meet Argentina’s eighth seed Juan Martin Del Potro in the last eight. Del Potro continued his recovery from his season out through injury by beating Colombia’s Alejandro Falla 6-2 6-1.