Robin Soderling aims to get his clay-court season back on track when he takes on Jeremy Chardy in the second round of the Estoril Open.
Soderling enjoyed a brilliant start to the season, picking up three titles in the first couple of months but his run of form was derailed by a knee injury in March. Soderling returned to the tour at the Barcelona Open last week but looked distinctly out of sorts during an opening round defeat to Ivan Dodig.
However Soderling can draw confidence from the fact that Chardy has been in an even greater slump recently. The Frenchman lost in the opening rounds of Indian Wells, Miami and Monte Carlo and decided to drop down a level and take a wildcard into the Napoli challenger last week only to crash out first round there too.
He finally managed to pick up a win earlier this week, seeing off France's Adrian Mannarino 6-4, 6-3 but his chances of upsetting the world number five do not look too great.
Soderling has won their only previous match 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 in Beijing two years ago.
