The top four seeds have advanced to the semi-finals at the SkiStar Swedish Open on Saturday.
World No. 5 Robin Soderling, will meet No. 8 ranked Czech Tomas Berdych. World No. 6 Spaniard David Ferrer will meet No. 14 ranked countryman Nicolas Almagro, who is also defending champion of the tournament. A semi-finals clash far beyond the ordinary for a tournament in the 250 category on the ATP tour.
Soderling vs. Berdych will be a replay of last year's semifinals at the French Open. The Swede won the match in five sets. Robin also leads the Czech 6-3 in their career series. This year the Swede has won three titles on the ATP tour, while Berdych has reached four semi-finals.
- There will be a fireworks display above the ordinary, sports director Thomas Johansson is predicting on the match.
Almagro vs. Ferrer will be a replay of the semi-final in Barcelona from April this year, a tournament in the 500 category on the ATP tour. Ferrer won the match in two straight sets. The two countrymen have played against each other seven times before and David Ferrer has won all of their meetings. Most of their matches have gone to three sets though and Almagro leads the statistics with 3-2 singles titles of the year.
- Ferrer against Almagro will become a Spanish derby with two of the world's best clay meeting each other, says Thomas Johansson for Saturday's clash.
Sweden also has three doubles players in the semi-finals. Lindstedt / Tecau meet Ferreiro / Sa and Aspelin / Siljeström meet Elgin / Kukushkin. A double-final with three Swedes and a Romanian is another dream that is definitely within reach.