Update 5:25 pm. Robin Soderling has sounded an ominous warning ahead of the Australian Open, clinching the Brisbane International title and an all-important top-four seeding for the year’s first Grand Slam.
The tournament’s top seed opened with an ace and closed out the match with another down the T to dethrone defending champion Andy Roddick 6-3 7-5 for his maiden outdoor hardcourt title.
The Swede dominated the baseline exchanges and was untroubled on serve sending down 16 aces while never facing a break point in an hour and 34 minutes on court.
“I’m playing really well and what makes me really happy is I never really played well in Australia before,” Soderling said.
“ I didn’t have the results here and now finally I have won a tournament playing really good tennis, which makes me really happy. It gives me a lot of confidence for Melbourne.”
After the match, Roddick announced he would double his pledge of $100 per ace for Queensland’s flood victims, bringing his donation to $10,800.
He was equally generous in his praise of Soderling, conceding he came up against a better play on the day.
“He served great. Conditions were heavy and he served through it better and I think that was the difference,” Roddick said.
“ I wasn’t able to get into any return games and he got into two and was able to break in those.
“It didn’t go my way today but overall I feel like I should be prepared for Melbourne.”
Soderling made inroads early on Roddick’s booming serve.
The American fought off break points in his opening service game but was broken next time around to hand Soderling a 3-1 lead.
The lone break was enough as Soderling smacked three aces and a backhand winner to wrap up the first set 6-3.
Roddick stuggled on serve again early in the second set. After staving off three break points a pumped Roddick gave a fist pump towards his crew.
At 4-4 play was stopped after both players complained of rain blowing on to the court.
“I said [to chair umpire Fergus Murphy] as soon as you see half of the stadium with umbrellas up it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out which way it’s going,” Roddick said.
“He said ‘well it’s not slippery yet’, and I said ‘well OK you want to wait for us to prove it’s slippery, which is done by what, slipping?’ “
When play resumed, games went with serve to 5-5 until Roddick fell behind 0-40.
He managed to level at deuce but Soderling sealed the crucial break when a Roddick backhand hit the net.
Soderling closed the match out with another comfortable game on serve to firm as a serious contender for Melbourne.
“I know that I have a good chance to do really well if I play good tennis like here,” he said.
Roddick also believes the Swede is Grand-Slam winning material.
“ He certainly has the game to beat anyone on a given day, that’s for sure and he’s proven that,” Roddick said.
“ It’s just a matter of putting seven [wins] together over the course of two weeks and that’s hard but you know he’s made deep runs at the French Open the last two years so it definitely wouldn’t shock me if he made a deep run.”