Robin Soldering to take part in Chennai open

Robin Soldering of Sweden, ranked 10th in the world, has confirmed participation in the ATP World Tour tennis tournament, 'Aircel Chennai Open 2010', to be held here from January 4 to 10 next.

'Chennai open is a much awaited event in the international tennis circuit. India is a fascinating country and I am  looking forward to visiting India and playing at the tournament this year,' Soldering said.

Soldering's performance chart since 2006 shows a phenomenal improvement as he progressed from top 50 in 2007 to 20 in 2008. The current season has been more fruitful as he surprised Nadal in Roland Grass French Open in the fourth round en route to his first ever Grand Slam final this year, a release said here today.

In Paris, he went on to beat three top 15 ranked opponents — David Ferrer (14), Nikolay Davydenko (11) in the quarterfinals and Fernando Gonzalex (12) in the semifinals before losing to Roger Federer.

His run in the French Open, which helped him gain 1200 points and his two solid performances in China, pushed up his ranking to ten.

Soldering, trained by a former ATP professional, Magnus Normal, had scored over Davydenko in tournaments in  2007, 2008 and 2009 and has won 45 matches of 63 singles ties in tour tournaments this year.

The 25-year-old Swede has also won four ATP Tour Titles in his career (3 Indoor — 2004, 05, 08) and in Bastad in 2009 and was a finalist on seven occasions.