OEIRAS, Portugal (AP)?Robin Soderling won his first clay-court match of the season Wednesday, beating Jeremy Chardy 6-1, 6-7 (4), 6-1 in the second round at the Estoril Open.
The top-seeded Swede, who lost his opening clay match in Barcelona last week, is preparing for next month?s French Open. He has reached two finals at clay-court Grand Slam tournament.
Soderling faces a stern test in the quarterfinals against eighth-seeded Juan Martin del Potro, who beat him in straight sets in Miami. The Argentine advanced after overcoming Alejandro Falla 6-2, 6-1.
Third-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga went out against Pablo Cuevas, the Uruguayan winning 6-2, 7-6 (0), while sixth-seeded Thomaz Bellucci eliminated Edouard Roger-Vasselin 6-3, 5-7, 7-5.
Soderling overpowered Chardy in the first set, winning four straight games after twice breaking the Frenchman and twice not conceding a point on his own serve.
Both players were plagued by unforced errors in the second set and broke each other three times apiece.
A dispute with the umpire over a call in the second game of the third set appeared to unsettle Chardy, allowing Soderling to rack up 13 straight points.
The fifth-ranked Soderling, the only top-10 player in Portugal, had a bye into the second round.
The Swede made a strong start to the year, clinching titles in Marseille, Rotterdam and Brisbane before going out in the third round of Masters events in Indian Wells and Miami last month.
The top three seeded women?Alisa Kleybanova, Jarmila Gajdosova and Klara Zakopalova?all advanced to the quarterfinals.
Source: http://feeds.tennis.com/~r/tenniscom-news/~3/_FXCyh1Gm38/
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