Soderling keeps up his upset act with knockout of Davydenko (1st Lead)

By Bill Scott Jun 2, 2009, 16:20 GMT

Paris - Swedish surprise Robin Soderling nailed his third straight victory over a seed, following up his upset of Rafael Nadal with a 6-1, 6-3, 6-1 hammering of Nikolay Davydenko to elbow into the semi-finals of the French Open Tuesday.

Two days after stunning Spain's king of clay in the shock of the tournament, the number 25 who has never won a clay title finds himself Thursday facing the winner from Andy Murray and Fernando Gonzalez.

Soderling continued to live a tennis dream, which began when he upset Spain's 14th seed David Ferrer in the third round last week before toppling four-time winner Nadal.

The Swede stunned Davydenko, a two-time Paris semi-finalist, with 34 winners and six breaks of serve as the 24-year-old Soderling lifted his modest Grand Slam record to 20-21.

'You're expecting a really, really tough match in the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam, but I have to say it was a little bit tougher than the score was,' said the winner.

'I was a little bit lucky in the beginning. I saved two break points in the first game and I broke him straightaway. Third seed Murray was bidding to continue the run of form which has taken him to new heights on clay when he played Chile's 12th seed Gonzalez later.

Women's world number one Dinara Safina of Russia had to rescue her match to keep the distance between chasing Serena Williams, coming back for a 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 defeat of Victoria Azarenka.

The Belarus bomber who won the Miami title in April, looked on her way in the first set to a knockout of the top seed, who needed to win to hold off number 2 Williams in the rankings chase.

Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia will be the next opponent for Safina after almost sending Maria Sharapova out with a 'double bagel' before the Russian rallied in a 6-0, 6-2 defeat.

It took Cibulkova five match point to finally go through, the delighted youngster rolling on her back in the red clay after securing the victory against the three-time Grand Slam winner just back from a shoulder problem.

Safina had dropped just five games in reaching the quarter-finals, but suddenly found herself in a match against Azarenka.

'She was playing well, and basically I was not doing anything to complicate it,' said Safina. 'I was playing exactly in her zone: everything to the middle. I just lost the set.

'In the third, every time I was break up, but I was always struggling to hold my serve. I'm not really happy with my game today.'

The Russian improved to 33-6 on the season after winning clay titles at her last two events in Rome and Madrid.