Swedish hope into first tour final
MARSEILLE, France -- Precocious young Swede Robin Soderling reached his first ATP final by beating home hope Arnaud Clement in straight sets in the 600,000-euro Marseille tournament on Saturday.
Seventh seed Clement succumbed 6-3 6-3 in 71 minutes to the big-serving 19-year-old from Gothenberg who continued to notch up the aces after having slammed down 52 aces in his previous three matches.
He meets Dominik Hrbaty in the final after the Slovak accounted for Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden 7-6 6-3.
"It's obviously a great disappointment today. I didn't have a good match. I was well beaten and made too many errors. said 26-year-old Clement, a finalist here in 1999.
"I needed to have a great match to win and I was far from that."
Soderling showed that he had more ammunition than a big serve, with a killer righthand which wore down his opponent.
The Swede wrapped up the first set in style by taking Clement's serve to love, and in the second broke in the fourth game as Clement failed to find an answer.
In the other semi-final Hrbaty, who has already won in Adelaide and Auckland this year, was always on top after winning a tight first set tiebreaker 11-9.
"I have the feeling I'm more relaxed, I feel less pressure," said Hrbaty. "I don't give any easy points to my opponent."
