Soderling wins a thriller!

 

Roar Rookie

By Monisha Dikshit, 24 Jun 2011 Monisha Dikshit is a Roar Rookie

Tagged:

 Lleyton Hewitt, Robin Soderling, Tennis, Wimbledon, Wimbledon 2011

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The fifth seed, Robin Soderling, fought back from down two sets to love to beat the Australian Lleyton Hewitt in a dramatic second round thriller under the Centre Court on Thursday.

An upset, clearly seemed to be on cards, as a succession of unforced errors gifted the Australian a two set lead over the Swede.

The former champion rallied from 1-3 down in the first set tiebreak to pocket the set. A spectacular diving backhand passing shot proved enough to conjure a break and lead 5-3 in the second.

Just as the Australian seemed to wrap up the match in straight sets, the fifth seed broke his opponent at 6-5 to race away with the third set.

The Swede started to find the range of his monstrous serve and again broke Hewitt to take the fourth set. The match headed into a decider.

The pumped-up Aussie , with his trademark “Come On” cries, and cheered by his loyal green- and-gold clad fans managed to break Soderling’s serve to go 3-1 up.

But the Swede broke right back and at 5-4, Hewitt found himself serving to stay in the match.

A brilliant crosscourt forehand coupled with some errors from the Australian’s racket handed him three match points, the first of which he converted when Hewitt lamely netted a forehand.

Soderling fell down on his knees and punched his chest. The loss ended the singles campaign for the Australian Hewitt.

Though disappointing, the Aussie can certainly take confidence from his performance today for the remaining season.