SODERLING RIPS DJOKOVIC

Sweden’s Robin Soderling backed up his impressive opening win over World No. 2 Rafael Nadal by defeating defending Barclays ATP World Tour Finals champion Novak Djokovic 7-6(5), 6-1 in Group B action Wednesday at The O2 in south-east London.

Soderling, making his debut at the season finale as a late replacement for the injured Andy Roddick, is the first singles player through to the semi-finals at the season climax. The Tibro native is the first Swede to reach the semi-finals since Jonas Bjorkman at Hannover in 1997. It is the second year in a row, and the fourth time in the past five years, that the No. 8 seed has reached the semi-finals or better.

In a 29-minute second set, Soderling won the final six games of the match with controlled aggression and few errors. Djokovic was unable to move around the court to the best of his ability and, in attempting to end the points quickly, more often than not made the error.