The Yoke's On Us

I know we talked about the Yoker yesterday, but I think he deserves a little more space. His achievements over the last few months have been, as we all know, great. And he's just added to them by winning the title in Bastad, Sweden - his home country.

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Which means he's kept his winning streak of not losing to anyone except the Great One RF alive, which is pretty amazing. When is the last time that someone not named Roger or Rafa had a streak like this? I can't even remember Djokovic or Murray doing it, truth be told. The closest thing to it I can remember, though it's obviously not the same thing, is that big run that Juan Martin del Potro made last year between Wimbledon and the US Open, where he won four tournaments on the trot, propelling him from #60-odd in the world into the top ten.

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I'm not saying that Soderling will necessarily do this, but if he keeps playing the way he is and losing only to that one guy, then he's going to find himself high up in the rankings before you can say 'the yoke's on me'. I know I rabbited on about this yesterday, but it is such a big achievement and such a marked improvement - previously, Soderling was one of the world's Kohlschreibers: a player with buckets of talent who could be dangerous on any given day, but who could also roll over meekly and die. But now we're seeing a lot more of the killer Robin and a lot less of the meek Robin. In fact, the only time I think meek Robin has showed his head was maybe in that first set of the Roland Garros final against Federer, and I think we can excuse him that one, it being his first Slam final and all.

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I'll be very interested to see how long the Yoker can keep this up. With streaks like this, you often think they'll burn out, but we only have to look at Juan Martin del Potro, who has put up pretty consistent results all year, to see that they doesn't necessarily have to be the case. When he signed up with Magnus Norman, it looks like Robin Soderling found his mojo. And it doesn't look like it's going to go away any time soon.

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Today's Results

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Catella Swedish Open (Bastad)

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Robin Soderling def. Juan Monaco, 6-3 7-6 (7-4)

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Mercedes Cup (Stuttgart)

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Jeremy Chardy def. Victor Hanescu, 1-6 6-3 6-4

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Indianapolis Tennis Championships (Indianapolis)

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Rajeev Ram def. Devin Britton, 6-3 7-5

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ECM Prague Open (Prague)

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Sybille Bammer def. Francesca Schiavone, 7-6 (7-4) 6-2

Francesca Schiavone def. Timea Bacsinszky, 6-2 4-6 7-5

Sybille Bammer def. Iveta Benesova, 6-0 7-5

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Internazionali Femminili di Tennis di Palermo (Palermo)

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Flavia Pennetta def. Sara Errani, 6-1 6-2