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A Nadal Loss at Roland Garros Means Robin Soderling Will No Longer Be the Answer to an Obscure Trivia Question, and that’s Okay with Him


Robin Soderling remains the only player to have vanquished the King of Clay Rafael Nadal on his favored terre battue at Roland Garros, but Soderling says he hasn’t necessarily enjoyed being known more for that single victory than his myriad other tennis achievements.

More: Patrick McEnroe and Chris Evert Say Paris Loss Could Have Dire Consequences for Rafael Nadal

“It says more about Rafa than it does about me,” Soderling told the Telegraph about his perceived claim to fame in an interview. Nadal, who currently owns a 66-1 record at Roland Garros, lost to Soderling in the round of 16 in Paris in 2009. He has since won 35 consecutive matches and taken his French Open title hoist to nine.

“It will never happen again, not in 100 years,” said Soderling.

He added: “It’s good to be the only one, but everybody is asking me only about this match. I am really proud of many other things in my career: being in the top five, reaching the final of a grand slam twice. I’m actually even more proud of making it to the French Open final in 2010 than the previous year, because defending those points was a big challenge.”

Soderling, who has been dealt a difficult fate from the tennis gods and has struggled with glandular fever since 2011, says he won’t lose any sleep if Nadal falls in Paris this year. He might even be relieved:

“So maybe it’s better that Rafa loses again, then everybody will stop asking me about it,” he said. “It’s become a sort of legend, and people often get it wrong: some think that I am the only person ever to beat him in any tennis match, others think it was in the final of the French Open, some even think it was at Wimbledon.”

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