2009 FRENCH OPEN

4th Round    

      ROBIN SODERLING    v     RAFAEL NADAL                

6-2, 6-7, 6-4, 7-6      

A monumental moment in tennis history.
SHOCKINGLY, world #1 Rafael Nadal suffered his first defeat at the French Open at the hands of Sweden's Robin Soderling.
Nadal, chasing a fifth straight Roland Garros title, saw his 31-match unbeaten run in Paris come to an end in one of the biggest upsets in tennis history.
Soderling's win comes a month after he was beaten 6-1 6-0 by Nadal in Rome.
Soderling unleashed one formidable service game after the next and his deadly groundstrokes put Nadal under severe pressure throughout.
Nadal's game was off from the beginning and instead of his usual constant barrage of heavy kicking deep groundstrokes,

he was hitting with less pace and much shorter in the court giving Soderling the chance to move in for the attack.
Nadal felt he just had a bad day against an opponent that was having the match of his life.

Possibly the pressure of being world number one, "the king of clay", and going for the record 5th consecutive title at Roland garros was too much.
Federer's re-emergence and Nadal's sudden appearance of vulnerability opens up every tournament now.
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