PBZ Zagreb Indoors:
29 January - 4 February 2007

After the disappointment in the Australian Open, Soderling was back in Europe. Marking two years of the last title (in Milan), he goes to Zagreb, as the third seed. In the opener, the opponent was Gilles Simon.
Robin didn't start well and was broken in the opening set, a break, which was enough to put him behind.
He recovered in the second and went 4-1 up, just to be broken again for 4-4 and to face a tiebreak. He trailed 2-5 in the breaker, but managed to score 5 successive points and to level the sets.
In the third set he was never challenged (he scored the amazing 20 points out of 20 first serves), but was not able to threaten Simon on his own as well. There was not a single breakpoint in the whole set. In the decisive tiebreak, Soderling made the early minibreaks for 5-2 lead, before serving out for 7-4 win.
The next opponent looked like a walk in the park - the qualifier and well outside top 100 Austrian Alexander Peya. And it started well, with Robin winning easily his service games. But off the Austrian's serve he wasn't able to do much and at 5-5 he got broken. He lost just eight points on serve, but managed to lose 5-7.
Robin was on top again in the second se, broke for a 4-2 lead, just to find himself broken again. However he made another break two games later and leveled the match.
But in the final set, Peya started serving at nearly 1000% and Robin found himself helpless. Unforced errors soon appeared again and as in far too many matches lately, he collapsed completely. He got two breaks in succession and with his performance, there was not even a slim chance of a comeback. He served for one more game before surrendering for a 2-6 set.

PBZ Zagreb Indoors Zagreb, Croatia Surface: Carpet Status: International Series Prize Money: €353,450 Draw Size: 32 Winner: (2)(WC)Marcos Baghdatis Finalist: (1)Ivan Ljubicic Robin Soderling this year: Last 16 Lost to (Q)Alexander Peya (AUT) Defending Champion: (1)Ivan Ljubicic Last Year's finalist: (Q)Stefan Koubek Robin Soderling last year: First Round Lost to (8)Feliciano Lopez (ESP) 6-7(4), 6-4, 1-6 Seeded players: 1. Ivan Ljubicic 2. Marcos Baghdatis 3. Robin Soderling 4. Mikhail Youzhny 5. Fernando Verdasco 6. Julien Benneteau 7. Kristof Vliegen 8. Arnaud Clement cut: Jiri Vanek - 102

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