Soderling beats Italian wild card

Fifth-seeded Robin Soderling extended his solid form of late with a 6-1, 7-5 win over Italian wild card Paolo Lorenzi at the Rome Masters today.

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Fifth-seeded Robin Soderling extended his solid form of late with a 6-1, 7-5 win over Italian wild card Paolo Lorenzi at the Rome Masters on Wednesday.

Soderling was coming off a runner-up finish at the Barcelona Open, where he lost to Fernando Verdasco in three sets. In the Swede's previous two tournaments - Masters Series events in Indian Wells and Key Biscayne - he reached the semifinals. Soderling ended Rafael Nadal's perfect record at the French Open last year and is in the same quarter of the draw as the Spaniard in Rome.

Another Italian wild card, Filippo Volandri, eliminated Julien Bennetau of France 6-2, 6-0; and Colombian qualifier Santiago Giraldo beat Michael Llodra of France 6-3, 6-2.