Fourth seed Robin Soderling staged a fightback to start his campaign at the ATP-WTA Miami Masters, with the Swede earning a 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 victory over Croatian Ivan Dodig to reach the third round.
|Last Updated: Mar 26, 2011, 08:30 AM IST|Source: Bureau
Miami: Fourth seed Robin Soderling staged a fightback to start his campaign at the ATP-WTA Miami Masters, with the Swede earning a 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 victory over Croatian Ivan Dodig to reach the third round.
Two-time Roland Garros finalist Soderling was playing for the first time in almost two weeks since losing his first match at Indian Wells after trying to play with an ankle problem and after five days in bed with a virus.
"The first round is always very difficult," said the relieved Scandinavian. "Obviously I didn`t play my best tennis today, but I`m still very happy that I won.”
"I know I can wake up tomorrow feeling great."
With three titles already this season, the Indian Wells loss was a blip on the Soderling record in 2011, where he has now won a leading 20 matches on the ATP.Soderling is also working to at least duplicate his Miami semi-final from 2010 as he handed the 57th-ranked Dodig his third career loss against no wins versus Top five players.
"At Indian Wells I didn`t play the way I wanted to, but I had some problems when I got there. I was in bed with fever and I didn`t have too many days to prepare."
The Swede next plays the winner from German Philipp Kohlschreiber and Argentine Juan Del Potro. "I lost to Kohlschreiber last week, and Del Potro I haven`t played for a while.”
"It`s gonna be a good match, it`s going to be very difficult for me."Two more seeds joined Soderling with wins, as number 14 Mardy Fish beat Frenchman Julien Benneteau 6-4, 6-3 and Serb 16th seed Viktor Troicki stopped Marsel Ilhan of Turkey 6-3, 6-3.
India`s Somdev Devvarman attacked the uncharacteristically low-voltage game of Canadian Milos Raonic, beating this year`s ATP revelation 7-6 (7/5), 7-5.
"I was trying to overcome a lot of things, I wasn`t playing my best, I wasn`t feeling the ball. I was trying to just squeeze by," said Raonic. "I wanted to win today and use tomorrow to get better and play better on Sunday. But that didn`t happen.
"He played well. It was not the greatest match but I was there fighting as much as I could today."
On the women`s side, second seed Kim Clijsters took to the court after a shoulder injury which forced her to quit her last match in the fourth round of Indian Wells, starting in Miami with a 6-1, 6-1 thrashing of Anastasia Yakimova.
Polish ninth seed Agnieszka Radwanska beat Czech Barbora Zahlavova Strycova 6-1, 6-0 and Czech 12th seed Petra Kvitova put out the last American standing in Varvara Lepchenko 6-1, 6-2.
Bureau Report
By clicking “Accept All Cookies”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts.
Cookies Setting
By clicking “Accept All Cookies”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device and the processing of information obtained via those cookies (including about your preferences, device and online activity) by us and our commercial partners to enhance site navigation, personalise ads, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts. More information can be found in our Cookies and Privacy Policy. You can amend your cookie settings to reject non-essential cookies by clicking Cookie Settings below.
Manage Consent Preferences
Strictly Necessary Cookies
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work or you may not be able to login.
Functional Cookies
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then some or all of these services may not function properly.
Targeting Cookies
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They are also used to limit the number of times you see an advert as well as help measure the effectiveness of an advertising campaign. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
Performance Cookies
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we may not know when you have visited our site, and may not be able to monitor its performance.