Losing a Grand Slam final is no fun: Soderling

For the second year in a row,Soderling came up short in the Roland Garros showpiece.

Robin Soderling knew what to expect when he faced Rafael Nadal for the French Open title on Sunday but he just could not cope with the best claycourt player of his generation. For the second year in a row,Soderling came up short in the Roland Garros showpiece.

Rafa always plays kind of the same, Soderling said. He has more or less one game but he does it so well its enough to not lose a match on clay for a whole year,which is pretty good. I think everybody knows what to expect when you play against him. Hes moving so well and gets everything back. Hes a great defensive player but also has a great offensive game. He can change defence to offence really quick. Thats why hes so good, he said.

Soderling did the vast majority of the attacking but the quality of Nadals defence meant that the errors inevitably flowed.

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I think in the beginning I was a little bit unlucky,I had a few break chances,he said. I didnt take them,so then of course it was tough. The margins are very small. Of course I didnt play as good this year as I did against him last year. I didnt serve as well. When Rafa is playing like this,you need to have a really good day,which unfortunately I didnt have today.

Soderling said losing to Nadal was just as bad as losing to Federer in the final last year,but that the only consolation was that he did not have a sniff of victory in either. Losing a final in a Grand Slam is not much fun, he said. But I wasnt close in any one of them. I lost straight sets last year and the same this year. Its always tougher if you lose a really,really close match, he said.

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