Nadal dwarfed the dirt as he stepped onto the world’s largest center court to face Soderling in the fourth round of the 2009 French Open. The four-time defending champion had stomped the Swede, 6-1, 6-0, just a few weeks earlier in the Rome round-of-16.
The two resided at the opposite end of the Roland Garros success scale: Nadal had never lost a match in Paris, while Soderling had failed to survive the second round in four of his five prior appearances. The mere suggestion that Soderling, a flat-ball hitter who had flat-lined in majors—he failed to survive the third round in 21 prior career Grand Slam appearances—would even threaten Nadal sounded as absurd as attempting to play leap frog over the Eiffel Tower.
But in a stunning performance of audacious shotmaking, Soderling converted five of six break points and cracked 61 winners in an upset that reverberated beyond Roland Garros. The world No. 25, who had never even contested a clay-court final in his career, deconstructed the King of Clay in snapping Nadal’s 31-match French Open winning streak. Soderling set the tone by breaking serve in the fourth game and taking the first set, marking the first time in two years Nadal dropped a set in Paris.
It was a particularly painful loss for Nadal, who was pained by knee tendinitis, which would prevent him from defending his Wimbledon title weeks later. Nadal and Soderling weren’t exactly as close as car-pool partners, either: Their edgy relationship erupted into an acrimonious clash at Wimbledon two years earlier when Soderling, angered by Nadal’s slow pace of play and pre-point rituals that the Swede regarded as stalling, openly mocked the Spaniard’s mannerisms by picking at the seat of his shorts, a habit of Rafa's before serving. Nadal edged Soderling, 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (7), 4-6, 7-5, in that rancorous Wimbledon win that took five days to complete and ended with a hasty handshake. After the match, Nadal revealed Soderling seldom spoke to him and suggested he was not well-liked in the locker room.
Informed of Nadal’s remarks by the media, Soderling shot back: “I would never say that about anyone on the press conference. I mean, I could say the same.”
Despite the bad blood between them, there was little indication that Soderling, who had won back-to-back matches at ATP events just twice since January of ’09, was capable of beating Nadal on this day. But a match after unleashed his long, sledgehammer strokes to defeat another Spaniard, David Ferrer, in a tight four-setter, Soderling then showed absolutely no fear as the heavy underdog.
Rafa's heavy topspin that had handcuffed so many opponents—Nadal was 49-0 in five-set matches on clay and had won 10 consecutive French Open matches in straight sets—sat up in the 6'4" Swede’s strike zone. Playing unrelenting offense, Soderling teed off on short balls, reducing Rafa to the role of retriever. It was the perfect storm for an upset: Soderling struck with conviction from the first point, Nadal felt hobbled, slow conditions made it challenging for the muscular Mallorcan to penetrate the court with his topspin, and their mutual disdain for one another injected ruthlessness to rallies. Tennis Channel analyst Martina Navratilova called one of the greatest upsets in Grand Slam history.
No. 5: Majoli d. Hingis (1997 Final)
No. 4: Kuerten d. Muster, Kafelnikov, Bruguera (1997)
No. 3: Chang d. Lendl (1989 Fourth Round)
No. 2: Soderling d. Nadal (2009 Fourth Round)
No. 1: Horvath d. Navratilova (1983 Fourth Round)<em>*</em>*
