Robin Soderling begins his Bastad campaign on Wednesday night against Diego Junqueira.
Soderling is cemented at number five in the world but the Swede has made no secret of his desire to win a Grand Slam and he will be a little disappointed with his year to date. Apart from the majors, 2011 has been fairly successful for Soderling who picked up three titles in the opening couple of months of the season. However the Australian Open and Wimbledon saw him make surprise fourth round exits to a couple of the game's rising stars Alexandr Dolgopolov and Bernard Tomic.
Soderling was unable to make it three French Open finals in a row as eventual champion Rafa Nadal blocked his path in the quarters. It ended up being a one-sided victory for Nadal but apart from Novak Djokovic, few can challenge him on clay.
He's going for a second Swedish Open title this week after becoming the first Swede in nine years to triumph in Bastad back in 2009. He came close to a double last year, scoring an impressive win over David Ferrer en route to the final before Nicolas Almagro proved just a bit too strong.
Argentine qualifier Diego Junqueira scored a big surprise in the opening round when he took out experienced Russian Igor Andreev in three sets. Andreev has been in the top 20 but he's been in decline since 2008. Junqueira has been in the top 100 in the past but he spends most of his time at challenger level and he is unlikely to have the class to trouble Soderling.
