Soderling - Pretender or Contender

At the tail-end of 2010 ATP season, one player has made the headlines. He is Robin Soderling. No one could ever forget he is the first guy to beat Rafael Nadal in Roland Garros (not even the Great Roger Federer could do it) and he of course dispatched Federer in this year Roland Garros in the quarter finals. Federer has at least made it to the 23 consecutive grandslams semifinals before this.

So is this man with the vicious forehand and powerful groudstrokes and serve will be the next best big thing. After all, he recently captured his first 1000 series masters in BNP Baripas Paris and has risen up to the no 4 in ranking overtaking the talented Andy Murray.

No doubt, he is a good player and consistent and has the belief that he can go all the way. Yet is he suddenly going to be like how Federer and Nadal dominate the tennis world and to a lesser extent ala Djokovic and maybe Murray?

I doubt so. He sure can beat any of the players mentioned above but not on consistent level. He belongs to the second tier players (Nalbandian, Davydenko etc...) Nalbandian has won 2 1000 Masters Series title and a ATP world title and has been to at least the semi finals for all the grandslams, Davydenko has 3 1000 Masters Series title and a ATP world title. both players have proven that they can beat the big boys yet had not been able to dominate nor win a grandslam.

Additionally compare to Andy Murray, Soderling record against the top 3 player is a mere 4-24 while Andy Murray stands at 15 -17.

Like a tennis critic recently commented, he is ROBIN not BATMAN.

I say he will play great tennis and beat great players along the way but will not win a grandslam in his career but will finish with a great amount of cash winnings. However, stranger things have happen in tennis like Nizlan changing to Dunlop after pledging allegiance to Prince!!