TENNIS in DEPTH.

Robin Soderling of Sweden will play home favourite Fernando Verdasco in Sunday’s final of the Barcelona Open BancSabadell after brushing aside the challenge of Thiemo de Bakker with a crushing 61 64 defeat to advance to his second ATP World Tour final of the season. Between them the pair had served over fifty aces between during the tournament, though neither posted particularly good service stats on Saturday, with just seven aces in total.

With De Bakker’s main weapon neutralised, the 21-year old struggled to find his rhythm, losing ten of the first eleven games before earning his first break of the world #7’s serve with a series of stunning winners. Södering was forced to raise his game to prevent a comeback, slamming down two aces to save a break point before sealing the second set 6-4.

Fernando Verdasco fought back from a set and a break down against compatriot David Ferrer on Saturday to book his place in the Barcelona Open final.

In the all-Spanish affair, Verdasco rallied to win 6-7(3/7) 7-5 6-1 and reach his second successive final.

It was a very even contest and neither player was willing to give an inch but Ferrer seemed to have grabbed a decisive advantage when, after winning the first set on a tie-break, he took a 4-2 lead in the second.

However, Verdasco swiftly broke back and, although Ferrer managed to save four set points on his serve, the number five seed levelled the match.

Ferrer, who reached the final the past two years, was growing increasingly frustrated and Verdasco swiftly went 5-0 up in the second set.

It is Verdasco’s second final in a row after he was swept aside 6-0 6-1 by Rafael Nadal last Sunday.

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Laura Robson has reached the semi-finals of the $50,000 ITF event in Dothan, USA with a three-set win over Australia’s Sophie Ferguson.

The 16-year-old came through qualifying and impressed in victories against Yuliana Fedak and Madison Brengle in the opening two rounds.

Robson beat Ferguson, who is ranked 144th in the world, in the first round of qualifying at the Australian Open in January and she repeated the feat, coming from a set down to triumph 4-6 6-3 6-1.

In the last four she will face Romanian fifth seed Edina Gallovits, who has been ranked as high as 54. Robson’s run should lift her into the world’s top 300 for the first time.

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Anastasia Rodionova and Samantha Stosur have given Australia a commanding 2-0 lead over Ukraine at the Fed Cup by BNP Paribas World Group play-off tie in Kharkiv.

In the first rubber, Anastasia Rodionova, who was making her Fed Cup debut after only gaining Australian citizenship in December, completed a remarkable comeback to claim a 06 63 75 win over Alona Bondarenko.

Rodionova lost the opening seven games against the world No. 25, but rallied in the second set to level proceedings before clinching victory in the decider, after serving for the match for a second time.

Samantha Stosur then put the away team firmly in the driving seat with a comprehensive 63 60 victory against Mariya Koryttseva. The world No. 10 trailed 03 in the first set, but astonishingly won 12 straight games to leave the Aussies with one foot in next year’s World Group.

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Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova has been ruled out of the Russia-U.S. Fed Cup semifinal tie with a leg injury, leaving Russia with just three players: Elena Dementieva, Ekaterina Makarova and Alla Kudryavtseva.

The U.S. has named teenager Sloane Stephens as its fourth player, but she’s unlikely to see any live action.

In other Fed Cup semifinal news, the Czechs have chosen the relatively inexperienced Lucie Hradecka to face Italy’s top player, Flavia Pennetta, rather than opting for Petra Kvitova. The Italians will be favored in Rome, as they also feature Francesca Schiavone, who is coming off a title run in Barcelona. The veteran will play Lucie Safarova in the second match.

French captain Nicolas Escude has tabbed Pauline Parmentier as his second singles player over Alize Cornet and Julie Coin in their tie against Germany in their World Group Playoff. Parmentier will face Germany’s Andre Petrovic in the opening match, while France’s Aravane Rezai will make her Fed Cup debut against Tatjana Malek in the second singles match

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Thiemo de Bakker, who caused the biggest shock of the fourth day of the Barcelona Open BancSabadell by ousting seventh seed Juan Carlos Ferrero in an epic battle on a packed Court One, followed that vicory with his best win to date over a top ten player by defeating Jo Wilfried Tsonga 6-4,3-6,6-3.

Bakker, a 21 year old from the Netherlands served an outstanding match and had the popular Frenchman on the ropes for most of the match. Tsonga saved 3 match points on his own servic at 2-5, but could not save the final match point from the Dutchman’s racquet.

Thiemo de Bakker has caught the imagination of many of the top players, who regard him as player with a very bright future.

Fernando Verdasco set up an all-Spanish clash with David Ferrer after overcoming Ernests Gulbis in Fridays second quarterfinal match at the Barcelona Open BancSabadell. Verdasco, who also reached the final of last week’s Monte Carlo Masters 1000 event, started well against the Latvian #1, breaking twice in the first set to secure a 6-2 lead after just under thirty minutes of play.

David Ferrer, a two time finalist in Barcelona, was too strong for Thomaz Bellucci. He defeated the Brazillian player 6-4, 6-0 in just over an hour.

The semi final between Verdasco and Ferrer ensures that Spain will be represented in the final for a 14th consecutive year.

De Bakker will play Robin Soderling who easily dispatched Eduardo Schwank in straight sets match in the other semi final.

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Andy Roddick has decided against playing at the clay-court Rome Masters next week, citing personal reasons.

The Rome Masters is a mandatory stop for top-ranked players on the tour, but the world No. 7 Roddick will not be fined for skipping it because he is allowed one free exemption per year as a veteran player with over 600 matches played on the circuit. Roddick also skipped Rome last year, which means he doesn’t having any rankings points to defend next week.

The former world No. 1 star, who also skipped the Monte Carlo Masters last week, is expected to play at the Madrid Masters, which will get underway May 9. The Monte Carlo Masters is no longer a mandatory event for the top men.

Rome serves as a tune-up for the French Open, where Roddick had his best-ever showing — a fourth-round one — last year.

In Roddick’s last outing, he captured the Miami Masters event three weeks ago.

Rome will also have to do without injured top-10 stars Juan Martin del Potro, the 2009 U.S. Open champion, and Nikolay Davydenko, both of whom are out with serious wrist injuries.

The 2010 French Open will commence May 23 in Paris.

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American doubles specialist Liezel Huber, who has repeatedly called on Venus and Serena Williams to play Fed Cup, was critical of the sisters’ decision not to play this weekend’s tie against Russia.

“We want this trophy and we want them to play,”  Huber said yesterday in Birmingham. “But if they don’t play, it’s very tough for me to be supportive of their decision. Come Olympics time and they want to play, they have to understand the people that are going to be loyal, I would hope, are going to go ahead of them. Because we are loyal. We want to bring the Cup home.”

The young American team has a realistic chance of winning against the usually powerful Russians. With the exception of Elena Dementieva, their team is also young and inexperienced, and Dementieva is a little rusty and can be very irratic.

If by some miracle the US does win it will be interesting to see if Mary Joe Fernandez continues to court the Williams sisters for the final tie with the defending champion Italian team, or whether she will have the guts and leadership to field the team that got the US into the final.

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Robin Soderling wasted little time booking his place in the last eight of the Barcelona Open with a straight-sets win over Spain’s Feliciano Lopez.

Swede Soderling never looked in any danger against the 16th seed as he sent down 11 aces and converted all of his three break-point chances on his way to a 6-3 6-2 win in just 57 minutes.

Soderling will next meet Argentina’s Eduardo Schwank, a 6-3 7-6 (9/7) victor over Ivan Navarro.

Third seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga rallied from a set down to book his place in the quarter-finals with victory over Spain’s Nicolas Almagro.

Frenchman Tsonga converted four break points on his way to ousting the 15th seed with a 5-7 6-1 6-4 triumph in two hours and two minutes.

The win was Tsonga’s second in nine days against Almagro following their meeting in Monte Carlo last week.

“I wasn’t sliding well at the start, the clay was quite heavy,” said Tsonga. “I was struggling to adjust myself to the ball.

“Then I started to play a bit more how I play on hard courts which enabled me to get back into the match in the second and third set.”

Next up for Tsonga is a meeting with Holland’s Thiemo de Bakker, who upset seventh seed Juan Carlos Ferrero 7-6 (7/2) 3-6 7-6 (7/4).

Tsonga added on atpworldtour.com: “It will be difficult against De Bakker next.

“I played him in the Davis Cup on indoor clay. It was a tough match, very difficult. He’s going to go up in the rankings in the next few months and has a lot of potential.”

Fifth-seeded Spaniard Fernando Verdasco, runner-up to Rafael Nadal in Monte Carlo last week, survived a scare against 11th-seeded Austrian Jurgen Melzer before progressing with a 3-6 7-6 (7/1) 6-3 win.

His next opponent will be Latvia’s Ernests Gulbis, who defeated Albert Ramos-Vinolas 6-1 6-3.

David Ferrer, the eighth seed from Spain, progressed after Italian qualifier Simone Bolelli retired with a wrist injury.

Ferrer, who was leading 6-0 3-0 when Bolelli quit after 45 minutes on court, will next play 13th-seeded Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil, a 6-4 6-4 winner over Spain’s Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.

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