Rafael Nadal Loses Opening Match In London
24 November 2009
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Rafael Nadal's hopes of reclaiming the number one spot took a serious blow yesterday afternoon after he lost his opening ATP World Tour Finals match to Robin Soderling.
It was the second time this year that the big hitting Swede had got the better of the Spaniard. Soderling had never played at the Tour Finals during his career but he showed no signs of nerves as he broke Nadal in his opening service game to open p a 3-0 lead.
Nadal looked uncomfortable on serve and struggled with his first serve percentage and his weaker second serve was being punished by Soderling.
Despite a summer plagued by injury Nadal's recent run of three semi finals and a final has put him within touching distance of Roger Federer at the top of the rankings.
But the famous Nadal fight was in full effect as he managed to pull his game together and get back on serve in the opening set. But Soderling kept his cool at 5-4 to wrap up the set.
Nadal came out all guns firing in the second set, much to the delight of the 17,000 strong crowd, as he broke Soderling .
But he couldn't hold onto the advantage as his serve once again let him down and Soderling broke him to level the set.
The Spaniards games was littered with unexpected errors as he continued to struggle with his serve and his forehand.
Clearly lacking confidence from his poor second half of the season he was missing shots that you would have expected him to make, however he did come up with several shots of brilliance that showed that his top form may not be far away.
But his fighting spirit wasn't to be enough as Soderling took the match in straight set 6-4 6-4.
However there were no excuses from the Spaniard as he told the BBC: "I think I didn't play really bad, I played OK.
"But in the important moments I didn't have the necessary calm - I played shorter in the important moments. That's the reason he beat me.
"He's a big player on this surface, so it's difficult. If you are not completely calm and playing very well in that moment, it's really difficult to win, and today I didn't play in this way at that moment."
However he still has two more matches to play this week as he attempts to reach Saturday's semi-finals.
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