Soderling on Course to Play Federer, Sharapova to Meet Top-seeded Wozniacki

Soderling on course to play Federer, Sharapova to meet top-seeded Wozniacki

Swede Robin Soderling wasted no time in disposing of Thiemo de Bakker in the third round of the US Open 6-2, 6-3, 6-3 at the Louis Armstrong Stadium.

In a game that was marred by some really strong winds, Soderling raced off to a 3-0 lead in the first set and there was no looking back from there. He went on to claim the first set in 27 minutes, before winning the second and the third sets in a total of one hour, 42 minutes.

De Bakker spoke about the gusty wind conditions, “It wasn’t a pretty match, there were tough conditions. It was a lot of wind on court. I think we were both struggling a little bit, actually.”

With this win, Soderling has now entered the fourth round of the US Open and will face No. 21 seed Albert Montanes. Montanes made it to the fourth round after opponent Kei Nishikori retired due to injury.

However, women’s fourth seeded Jelena Jankovic was not so lucky in her third round match against Kaia Kanepi, as she lost 2-6, 6-7. The first set was a cakewalk for Kanepi, as she took advantage of the windy conditions to upset Jankovic’s rhythm, and then served for the match at 5-3 in the second set.

However, Jankovic won three games in a row to force the set into a tie-breaker. Unfortunately for the Serbian, she failed to maintain the momentum and garnered only one point in the tie-breaker to go down.

Top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki made an easy entry into the last 16 as she overcame the gusty conditions and Chan Yung-Jan to enter the fourth round with a 6-1, 6-0 win. She will now take on the 14-seeded Maria Sharapova, who routed America’s Beatrice Capra 6-0, 6-0, in a near flawless game. Sharapova has won one US Open title that came in 2006, apart from having won one Australian Open and one Wimbledon title.