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.
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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.
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