News & Photos / Interviews / Interview with Robin Soderling

R. SODERLING/N. Davydenko

6‑1, 6‑3, 6‑1

An interview with:

ROBINSODERLING

THE MODERATOR: Questions in English, please.

Q. First Ferrer and Nadal and today Davydenko. You are riding the confidence wave?

ROBIN SODERLING: Yeah, you know, I think I didn't have avery easy draw. I played three very goodclay‑court players and I played three very good matches, so of course myconfidence is getting better and better.

Q. It was a little bit easier than expected today?

ROBIN SODERLING: Yeah. Of course you're expecting a really, really tough match in thequarterfinals of a Grand Slam, but I have to say it was a little bit tougherthan the score was.

I was a little bitlucky in the beginning. I saved twobreak points in the first game and I broke him straightaway. So instead of maybe being down 2‑0 I was up 2‑0,and then I think from then I played very well.

Q. Did you receive that SMS from Bjørn?

ROBIN SODERLING: Yes.

Q. You did?

ROBIN SODERLING: I did.

Q. Phone call or SMS?

ROBIN SODERLING: No, I got an SMS.

Q. What did he say?

ROBIN SODERLING: Yeah, he said, Congratulations, and thank youfor not letting Nadal break my record. Ithink he will be down here maybe tomorrow.

Q. Do you think that your game has leaped in dimension in thistournament? Do you think that you made anew Soderling profile of game standards?

ROBIN SODERLING: You know, I always knew that I could playreally, really good tennis when I'm on top of my game, and that ‑‑ thething that I'm most happy with is that I played very well now not only for thistournament, I played well last week, as well.

So I played well formany, many matches in a row, which maybe was missing for me a little bit acouple years ago.

Q. I think I'm not the only one who could hardly believe the result. Could you explain a little bit what wentthrough your mind when it was so easy?

ROBIN SODERLING: Um, as I said, you know, the score lookseasy, but I think it was a little bit tougher than the score was. But again, it's always tough to win an easyfirst set. It was very quick. You can't ‑‑ you can never relax in thematch on this level.

I knew that he wasgoing to start playing better, and straight from the first point in the secondset he actually started to play much better. So I always needed to tell myself to not lose concentration and to be ontop of my game.

Q. When it was 100% you played before Roland Garros, how many percent is itnow, you think?

ROBIN SODERLING: What do you mean, on my game?

Q. Yeah.

ROBIN SODERLING: It's tough say, because I'm playing againstvery good opponents. It's so much easierfor me to feel good when I'm playing a player that is maybe not as good, becauseon this level they all make you play a little bit worse.

Against Nadal it's verydifficult to play well against him. Thesame with Davydenko. He's playing fast,moving well.

But overall, I think I'm playing himextremely well.

Q. Didyou know that Federer said that he thought that Davydenko could win thistournament? So you have beaten Nadalfirst and Federer now, in a way?

ROBIN SODERLING: I didn't know. Yeah, of course he's right. I think all the players that were in thequarters can win this tournament. That'show close this game is, you know. Everybody is great players, so I agree with him.

Q. And then you have an Italian sponsor, Lotto. It's the only way we can get through thistournament. I mean, do you think theywill renew the contract now, or you were in troubles with that?

ROBIN SODERLING: Actually, I signed the contract for thisyear, so hopefully they will be a little bit happier with this week's results.

Q. There was any rule that if you were reaching the semifinal you getdouble from them or something? Did youthink about that?

ROBIN SODERLING: No, I didn't think about it. I have to go back and read the contract againmaybe to be sure.

Q. What was the most interesting reaction? Somebody phoned you after you beat Rafa the other day? Anything interesting happen in terms of whoyou won from?

ROBIN SODERLING: Yes, of course Bjørn. It was very big for me to receive an SMS fromhim. He's maybe the best player of alltime, so it was ‑‑ I got a lot of SMS and phone calls.

The funny thing is, Igot a lot of SMS from people I don't even know. I have no idea how they got my phone number, but I got a lot of SMSfrom, yeah, people I didn't know.

Q. Wasn't too hard to keep your concentration after all the fuss?

ROBIN SODERLING: No, I think I managed to do that well. I mean, as I said after the match againstNadal I won a great match, and this is maybe the happiest day match in my career. But I have another match to concentrate on.

I feel the same waytoday. I don't want to be too happy,because I have another match coming up.

Q. Ice hockey, are you interested? Did you ever play? Was it anoption for you?

ROBIN SODERLING: I played a bit when I was a kid.

Q. Have you felt more noise around you since Sunday, just hearing your namemore and seeing yourself on TV more and things like that?

ROBIN SODERLING: Um, I haven't watched TV, actually. I haven't read the newspapers. But, you know, my phone was ringing a lot.

Hopefully this willgrow the interest in the tennis in Sweden again. You know, I really hope that this is going tohelp the sport in Sweden.

Q. I'm from an Argentinean newspaper. I'd like to ask you about Del Potro. Do you think that he can reach the final here with you?

ROBIN SODERLING: Yes, of course. I think so. You know, everybody has a chance to reach the final, and Del Potro, he'sa great player. What I was talkingabout, he is very consistent. He rarelynever play any bad matches. He's alwayson the high level, so of course he has a big chance to reach the final.

Q. You are the only Swedish player for the men's draws and the women'sdraws. How it comes that the Swedishtennis is so weak now?

ROBIN SODERLING: Oh, I don't know. Maybe I'm not the right person to ask. But, you know, we had such a greattraditions. For a country with only ninemillion people, we had so many great players.

I think one year we had19 or 20 guys in the main draw here in French, which is unbelievable for acountry. I think it will go up and downfor every country.

So hopefully ‑‑ I know for a fact wehave a lot of good juniors coming up. Maybe in four or five years I'm not the only one on tour.

Q. Thisis your first semifinal in the Grand Slam. Did you ever think that it would come here in Paris? I mean, did you see it on another surface perhaps?

ROBIN SODERLING: If you'd ask me like four years ago, I'd sayI will never reach a semis in Paris. But for every year, I think I started to playbetter and better on clay. Actually, Ilike to play on all surface. There's nosurface that I don't like.

Maybe so far I had mybest results indoors, but then I think clay is my next best surface, actually.

Q. Can you just talk about your next possible opponent? They split sets, so we don't know who it'sgoing to be. I know you haven't played Murray in like threeyears, and González. Can you talk aboutthose two matchups?

ROBIN SODERLING: Yeah, again, they're two great players. González is ‑‑ he's an excellent clay‑court player. Like if you look at his results for the pastthree years on clay, he didn't lose many matches.

Murray had a great career, a short but agreat career so far. So it's going to betough, whoever I play.