Robin Soderling aims to deliver the Swedish Open title for his home fans as he takes on David Ferrer in Sunday's Bastad final.
Soderling delivered a knockout semi-final performance to rout Tomas Berdych 6-1, 6-0 in just 70 minutes to reach his three successive Swedish Open final. Their previous match had gone five sets at the French Open and many believed this one would also go the difference but Soderling was unstoppable.
Last year Soderling's hopes of claiming a second Swedish Open title were dashed by Spain's Nicolas Almagro but this time the defending champion was outplayed 6-1, 6-3 in the last four by his nemesis David Ferrer.
Almagro has never beaten Ferrer on the tour and he looked short of belief as he put in an erratic performance to suffer his third defeat of the year at the hands of the world number six.
However Ferrer knows he faces a much sterner test in the final. "It's going to be a very difficult match tomorrow against Robin," he said. "He's playing unbelievable this week. I need to play my best tennis to beat him and to return very well as he has a great serve. Every final is special for me. I know people will support him, but I will try and play my game."
Soderling leads 9-4 on the head-to-head and crucially has won two of their three previous matches at the Swedish Open. Ferrer won 6-2, 6-4 on the way to the title in 2008 but Soderling beat him 6-3, 6-1 in 2006 and 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in last year's semi-finals.
Prediction: Soderling in three.
