Qatar ExxonMobil Open 2007:
1 - 7 January 2007

Robin starts the 2007 in the very first tournament, in Doha. With the absence of Federer this year, the draw is more open and the sixth seeded Soderling got a nice quarter with a start against the Belgian Vliegen.
In a bizarre two-set match with many (8) breaks and not even one breakpoint set, Robin came on top winning two breaks in the opening set and three in the next one, including the last game.
Clearly this wasn't by far the Swede's best performance as he was serving well below par, but in the end he managed to get the year starring with a fine win.
The up-and-down performance continued in the second round, when he lost the opening set against Guillermo Garcia Lopez, conceiving two breaks. He recovered quickly, though, with a bagel in the second one and an easy third set with just one break.
But in the quarterfinal against Marcos Baghdatis, Soderling cut the errors when he needed to and lost only four points on the first serve. He saved the rare breakpoints and converted his own opportunities three times. The second set was completely one-sided as Robin lost just four points on serve.
"My goal this year is to reach the Top 10; it's gonna be difficult but not impossible. I think I have the game for it but I just need to be more consistent and not just play a good match here and there. I put in a lot of work in the off season and I feel totally ready." - said Soderling after the match.
In the semifinal Robin met the second seed Croatian Ivan Ljubicic, who survived from a set down, winning two straight tie-breaks against Mikhail Youzhny.
And another tough match was going to be as Robin made the early break and carried it through the opening set. He was confident from the serving line and cruised through all service games. In the last one however, he made few unforced errors and faced a breakpoint. He saved it to take the lead in the match.
In the second set it went game for game, but at 4-5, Soderling made a present to the Croat with few unforced errors on serve, to be broken for the first time and for the second set.
But the momentum was still with the Swede, as he broke in the opening game of the final set and carried it all to 5-3. He had two successive matchpoints then, but four straight points to Ljubicic made him serving for the match. This time, unlike the opener, he lost, as Ljubicic made two lucky miss-hits into great points.
The match went into a tiebreak, but then even though Robin got to a mini-break up, he failed to match the Croat's serving. He made five aces in the six serves in the tiebreak and the third of them really intimidated Robin, who thought it was out. He made a double-fault then - his first of the match, to fall a mini-break back. He saved the first matchpoint on serve, but the final ace from Ivan, was the end.
Anyway it was a good preparation for the Australian Open, week from now.

Qatar ExxonMobil Open Doha, Qatar Surface: Hard Status: International Series Prize Money: $975,000 Draw Size: 32 Defending Champion: (1)Roger Federer Last Year's finalist: (7)Gael Monfils Robin Soderling last year: Not Played Seeded players: 1. Nikolay Davydenko 2. Ivan Ljubicic 3. Marcos Baghdatis 4. Andy Murray 5. Mikhail Youzhny 6. Robin Soderling 7. Sebastien Grosjean 8. Stanislas Wawrinka cut: Andreas Seppi - 75

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