Soderling!!!

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The thus far unheralded Swede dominates another elite player and enters the championship ranks.

So it was no one-match wonder after all. M8W Robin Soderling followed up on his shock 4th-round victory over Yokozuna (=Grand Champoion) Rafael Nadal with an impressive straight-sets blowout of M2E Nikolay Davydenko--a former Sekiwake (=Junior Champion I) and world #3. Soderling therefore makes his Sanyaku breakthrough at almost 25 years of age. After Roland Garros he will be at least Komusubi (=Junior Champion II), but Sekiwake is in the cards if Soderling wins one more match.

The man who will try to prevent this is ex-Sekiwake M3E Fernando Gonzalez, who re-entered the sanyaku ranks himself by beating the current world #3, Andy Murray. Murray has secured re-promotion to Sekiwake with this quarterfinals participation, but his chances of becoming the 28th Ozeki (=Champion) of the open era took a severe blow. To this end, Murray would have needed to reach the final at Roland Garros--a feat that seemed quite faesible after Nadal's early exit. Now Murray needs to win Wimbledon.

In the ladies' quarterfinals, Ozeki Dinara Safina was made to work hard by up-and-coming M1W Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, before the teenager ran out of steam in the third set.

Safina now meets another upstart, M7E Dominika Cibulkova, who will be promoted at least to Komusubi after this tournament. Cibulkova abruptly ended Maria Sharapova's comeback. Maybe it was the relentless pressure applied by the young Slovakian, maybe Sharapova had gone through too many tiring three-setters during the course of this tournament, but the former Ozeki found some form only at 0-6 0-5--too late to prevent Cibulkova from closing out the match. Nonetheless, it is good to see Sharapova back on the big stage. Maybe she can re-enter the Sanyaku ranks at Wimbledon.