Much has been made of Robin Soderling's two Grand Slam Final appearances at Roland Garros.

Responsible for breaking Rafael Nadal・s plight for his fifth consecutive French Open title in 2009 and knocking out defending Champion Roger Federer at this year・s tournament. Questions have been raised if the hard-hitting Swede is building up to bigger things or if it was just ：luck； that played a major role.

It was Soderling, talented but inconsistent, who pulled off one of the great upsets in Grand Slam tournament history last year. Nadal had never lost at Roland Garros, winning 31 matches and four French Open Grand Slam Championships in a row and it would be fair to say, that he had come to be known as the face and the biceps of Roland Garros.

Soderling had previously been a clay-court nobody, someone capable of strolling around the Bois de Boulogne without too many second glances. He was the No.23 seed, had three ATP titles to his name and his best performance at a Grand Slam prior to this was a third round appearance.

Nadal on the other hand already had six Grand Slam titles to his name and was expected to win his seventh. This would have taken him past the four French Open trophies that Swede Bjorn Borg won from 1978 to 1981.

Then came a result that no one in the 15,000-strong crowd, or around Roland Garros or across the wider tennis world, had seen coming. Soderling achieved the biggest upset in Grand Slam history. He went two sets to one up and then finished off Nadal, 6-2, 6-7, 6-4, 7-6 and celebrated the victory by flinging his racket into the crowd. To think that when Nadal and Soderling played on clay a month previously, at Rome・s Foro Italico, the Swede only managed to win just one game. On the Parisian clay however, Soderling took the match to Nadal. He struck the ball and was not afraid to go for his shots.

What Federer had failed to do, Soderling had achieved. It was the first time Nadal had lost a clay-court match that was played as a best-of-five-set contest, having won the previous 48 in a row. Some players would have crumpled mentally if they had been close to scoring such a remarkable win, but Soderling held himself together. While Nadal refueled on bananas during the changeovers, Soderling sat there with his head buried in a towel, composing himself. If anything, Soderling・s tennis reached another level at the close, winning the fourth set tiebreak with ease.

This fourth round loss threw the tennis world out of equilibrium. Nadal's streak was over. The path for Roger Federer to win his first French Open and complete a career Grand Slam was cleared, and Soderling became noted for something other than a player with potential.

However due to the Spaniard playing on battered knees for most of the tournaments and his game perceived to have been sub par, probably more in part to the aggressive, confrontational tennis played by Soderling, the question was raised whether his loss was emanate regardless of whether Soderling had defeated him. After upsetting Federer, the defending Champion once again this year in the same arena, there can be no such doubts. The big hitting Swede has outclassed two defending champions in two consecutive years, winning 3-6 6-3 7-5 6-4 in the quarter-final.

Losing in last year's final to Federer, Soderling had returned as a powerful No. 5 seed and after dropping the first set, he put on a flawless show saving a set point in the third before knocking out Roger, the top-seeded defending champ and 16 time Grand Slam Champion in the quarter-finals.

Record breaking again, Soderling insured it was the first time in six years, a tennis Grand Slam's semi-final would not feature world No.1 Roger Federer, who had had a run of 23 consecutive semi-final Major appearances.

Before this match, Federer had a 12-0 winning streak against the big-swinging Swede, winning 28 of their 30 sets. But Soderling's recent improvement was evident as he controlled rallies from the baseline and Federer found himself on the defensive and unable to move forward.

"The king has been dethroned by an audacious Swede, the world number seven, who was neither unsettled by the hour-long rain delay nor the jeers of the crowd when he contested line calls," said a Swedish newspaper post match. Expressen assured its readers: "Nobody could have defeated Soderling in the last three sets."

Sweden's Davis Cup captain Thomas Enqvist, told Aftonbladet: "I can't find the right words. Robin played a fantastic match."

Despite losing the 2010 French Open final to Nadal in a match up juicy with symmetry and intrigue, Soderling has proved he is on his way to becoming one of the giants of tennis.

He has been a consistent player since his breakthrough run at the 2009 French Open, with a powerful serve, a big forehand and solid backhand. His pace of shot and shot-making are some of the Swede・s greatest strengths and he can overpower most of his opponents with the ability to string together a great return game to break serve.

During this period he has defeated Nadal, Federer, Novak Djokovic, Nikolay Davydenko and Jo-Wilfred Tsonga, five of the world・s top-ten players. Add to this a stronger mentally, thanks to the help of his current coach Magnus Norman, and he has more than the qualifications to be considered one of the best.

In recent times his dominance is also spreading beyond the clay court with his best ever performance at Wimbledon this year, reaching the quarterfinals before being defeated by his arch rival Nadal.

The supremely-fit Swede, said "I feel really good and my confidence is good because I think I've been playing really well for a year or almost a year and a half now, beating a lot of good players in big matches and in big tournaments. I think that's a really big thing in this sport."