Just one day to go at Brisbane International 2011 and by day’s end one man will stand as champion.
With just one match to go, top seed Robin Soderling and second seed Andy Roddick will both be hoping to win their first tournament of 2011.
In Saturday’s semifinal, world No.8 Roddick dropped his first set of the tournament to boom-server Kevin Anderson, while No.5 Soderling had his serve broken for the first time all week by crafty Czech Radek Stepanek.
“So far I feel very good,” said Soderling after his semifinal win over Stepanek. “I’ve had four really good matches and of course the final is the match you really want to win [but] even if I lose tomorrow I still feel like I’ve had a very good week.”
“He would probably say the same; we’re going to see the best of what we’ve seen this week against each other tomorrow,” Roddick said.
“He’s won all three times we’ve played indoors, I’ve won twice when we’ve played outdoors and this [court] is kind of a hybrid so we’ll see.”
In 2010 the Brisbane International 2011 finalists met three times with Roddick winning twice, but Soderling won their most recent encounter in Paris on hard court.
Today, defending champion Roddick has the chance to add to his one Brisbane title, while Soderling will be hoping to win his first.
Meanwhile, in the men’s doubles, which will kick off the day’s proceedings at 12 noon, the third and fourth seeds will face off for the title.
Third seeds, Australian Paul Hanley and Czech Lukas Dlouhy, will take on fourth seeds Robert Lindstedt of Sweden and Horia Tecau of Romania.
Hanley and Dlouhy outsmarted top seeds Max Mirnyi and Daniel Nestor in the semis to make their way to the final, while Lindstedt and Tecau have weathered three-set matches in each round so far.
All four players in today’s doubles final are hoping to win their first Brisbane International title.
One. It really is a small number, but it can make all the difference.
Don’t miss your chance to watch two of the world’s best players fight it out for the Brisbane International title, tickets can still be purchased for today’s final from Ticketek.