Robin Soderling Into Third Round For First Time

Robin Soderling reached the third round of the Australian Open for the first time in his career as he enjoyed a straight sets win over Gilles Muller.

The fourth seed took the opening set comfortably 6-3 but faced tougher competition in the second as the two men were locked together at 6-6.

A tie break was needed and it was the Swede who dominated as Muller managed to win just a single point.

Into the third and it was straight forward for Soderling who didn’t face a single break point throughout the match. He is yet to drop a set and a quarter final clash with Andy Murray is looking ever the more likely.

Speaking to the ATP after the match Soderling said: "I really feel that I can play well on every surface. So here the conditions and the surface in Melbourne should suit my game very well," said Soderling.

"I played some pretty good matches, but the result hasn't been good. But hopefully now I feel like I'm playing really well and I have a lot of experience from doing well in other Grand Slams.

“So hopefully this year it will change."

He will now face Jan Hernych for a spot in the fourth round as he came through in five tough sets against Thomaz Bellucci.

He finally came through 6-2 6-7 (11-13) 6-4 6-7 (3-7) 8-6 to set up the clash with the number four seed.

Marcos Baghdatis was another big winner as she saw off former U.S. Open Champion Juan Martin Del Potro in the night match.

Baghdatis is looking to recapture the form that took him to the final in Melbourne six years ago while Del Potro is on the comeback trail after undergoing wrist surgery last year.

This is the first Grand slam that the Argentinean has played in since the Aussie Open twelve months ago.

The opening set it was all about the Cypriot as powerful serving and some superb forehands saw him drop just a single game.

Dropping serve early in the second set saw Del Potro’s task of winning become even harder as once again found himself on the back foot.

But The Argentinean burst into life when he went so two sets down - and it looked like we really had a match on our hands.

Del Potro’s confidence seemed to grow in the third set as he unleashed some monster forehands to take it 4-6.

Baghdatis may have needed the trainer for a calf strain at the end of the third set but it wasn’t long before he was backing control of the match with an early break.

Sadly there wasn’t to be another fight back from Del Potro and Baghdatis came through a 6-1 6-3 4-6 6-3 winner.

He will now face eleventh seed Jurgen Melzer as the Australian had a straight forward 6-2 6-4 6-2 victory over Pere Riba - the winner of the Melzer/Baghdatis clash will play Andy Murray is he sees off Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw