Australian Open:
15 - 28 January 2007

Robin missed the Australian Open, last year, recovering from a surgery and starting the 2006 season in a challenger in Germany (which he won easily). But this year, he went to the Australia as a seeded player and got a pretty favorable draw.

Robin failed to convert it though, as he lost another early-round match another slam event, this time against the German Florian Mayer.
The opening match was delayed by the extreme heat in Melbourne and it was played after midnight.
It started well for Soderling as he quickly got to a 3-0 lead. He served out the opening set, while losing only 4 points on serve. The second set looked to be heading the same way, as Soderling broke to love, for a 2-1 lead.. But he was later broken back and then wasn't able to stay in the set, as was broken for the second time at 4-5.
In the first game of the third set, the Swede faced another low point as he got to 15-40 deficit. He saved the both breakpoints and then immediately broke Mayer for 2-1 lead, just as in the previous set. However, while serving at mere 42% it was very difficult for Soderling to hold serve easily. The dominance of the opening set was long gone and he had to struggle for every point. Putting a lot of stress on the serve resulted in three doubles in the opening two games alone. He faced another breakpoint, but hold to stabilize the break for 3-1.
In the set plaqued by unforced errors and bad serving, Soderling made the decisive move with another brake for a 6-3 win.
This was the last high point for him, though, as he lost the fourth set, being broken at 3-3 and in the final set Robin completely destroyed himself with 15 unforced errors in just six games, being broken three times for a 0-6 set!
A very disappointing performance and another lost five-setter for another poor grand-slam appearance. Also he posted 0-6 sets in straight slam matches (after the US Open).

Australian Open Melbourne, Australia Surface: Hard Status: Grand Slam Prize Money: AUS$19,000,000 Draw Size: 128 Winner: (1)Roger Federer Finalist: (10)Fernando Gonzalez Robin Soderling this year: First Round Lost to Florian Mayer (GER) 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, 4-6, 0-6 Defending Champion: (1)Roger Federer Last Year's finalist: Marcos Baghdatis Robin Soderling last year: Not Played Seeded players: 1. Roger Federer 2. Rafael Nadal 3. Nikolay Davydenko 4. Ivan Ljubicic 5. James Blake 6. Andy Roddick 7. Tommy Robredo 8. David Nalbandian 9. Mario Ancic 10. Fernando Gonzalez 11. Marcos Baghdatis 12. Tommy Haas 13. Tomas Berdych 14. Novak Djokovic 15. Andy Murray 16. David Ferrer 17. Jarkko Nieminen 18. Richard Gasquet 19. Lleyton Hewitt 20. Radek Stepanek 21. Dmitry Tursunov 22. Dominik Hrbaty 23. Robin Soderling 24. Juan Carlos Ferrero 25. Mikhail Youzhny 26. Marat Safin 27. Jose Acasusuo 28. Sebastian Grosjean 29. Xavier Malisse 30. Augustin Calleri 31. Stanislas Wawrinka 32. Nicolas Almagro

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