Robin Soderling believes he can contend for the Australian Open title as the first Grand Slam of the year heads into the second week.
Soderling's past record at the Australian Open has been strangely poor, until this year he was yet to advance beyond the third round. However the Swede has started 2011 with an increased belief in his ability. He won the Brisbane International title and has cruised through to the last sixteen in Melbourne without dropping a set.
Soderling believes he can win this title and he looks set to collide with the in-form Andy Murray in the quarter-finals. The two have been fighting it out over the world number four spot for the past few months and if Soderling wins it will cement his points lead over Murray.
"There's always going to be a lot of attention on Roger and Rafa but I think there's many guys who can actually compete against them and have a chance to win the tournaments like this when they're playing well. I already played two Grand Slam finals and I beat them both in Grand Slams," he said after his third round win over Jan Hernych.
"I can do well on any kinds of surface: slow, fast, indoors, outdoors. In Melbourne, I struggle since the conditions are always changing a lot here. One day it's 30 degrees, the next day it's 20 and windy, sunny, cloudy. So that's tough. But I think it's tough for everybody."
