Latest News From SkiStar Swedish Open

Written by: Staff on 15th July 2011

Latest News From SkiStar Swedish Open

Sweden's Michael Ryderstedt returns the ball to Argentina's Maximo Gonzalez in the Skistar Swedish Open tennis tournament in Bastad, Sweden, 12 July 2011. EPA/BJORN LARSSON ROSVALL SWEDEN OUT |

Four top seeds through in SkiStar Swedish Open – Three Swedes still in doubles event.

World No. 5 Robin Soderling of Sweden is through to the semi-finals at the SkiStar Swedish Open. Robin took out No. 8 seed Italian Potito Starace in two straight sets 6-3 6-4. Crowd favourite Soderling will take on World No. 8 Tomas Berdych, who won against Slovenia’s Blaz Kavcic 6-1 6-4. The pair has played nine times and Soderling leads 6-3 in matches. Berdych is a two-time runner up at this event.

Robin Soderling launched his new charity Robin Soderling Stiftelse (Foundation) in Båstad yesterday. The foundation will help children in need and attempt to improve their every day life. Robin has already spent a day at the Queen Silvia’s Children’s Hospital on Monday. Soderling said, “I got to spend time with the children from Queen Silvia’s Hospital, play game, paint and have lunch with them. It was a truly eye-opening experience and a day to remember.”

Both seeds in the bottom half of the draw are through. No. 4 seed Nicolas Almagro of Spain overcame surprise player Michael Ryderstedt of Sweden 6-4 7-6 (4). Ryderstedt has only been in one other ATP Tour quarterfinal in his career seven years ago. It was at Stockholm Open an indoor event played in October every year.

Nicolas Almagro will play fellow countryman and second seed David Ferrer, who crushed Austrian Andreas Haider-Maurer 6-1 6-1 in 55 minutes. Ferrer came straight from Austin, Texas where he played in the Spanish Davis Cup team against The United States. He won both his singles matches against Andy Roddick and Mardy Fish.

In the doubles event at the SkiStar Open, three Swedes are through to the semi-finals. No. 1 seeds Robert Lindstedt and Horia Tecau beat Dustin Brown and Michael Kohlmann 6-4 6-2. Their opponents will be the Brazilian team of Franco Ferreiro and Andre Sa, who beat Maximo Gonzalez and Potito Starace 10-6 in the third set.

The Swedish pairing of Simon Aspelin and Andreas Siljestrom beat Blaz Kavcic and Pere Riba 7-5 6-4. Simon and Andreas can look forward to playing Michail Elgin and Mikhail Kukushkin next. Elgin and Kukushkin ousted the No. 4 seeds Davis Marrero and Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo 6-3 7-6 (4).