The 2009 French Open men’s singles final offers a surprising matchup, but anyone who’s watched the first 14 days of the 15-day event at Roland Garros would find it hard ignore the notion that Robin Soderling should be the man standing in the way of Roger Federer‘s path to an added measure of tennis immortality. [...]

If ever a tennis match other than a Wimbledon final deserved a banner headline, in raging capital letters, this was it. The words are simple but substantial, and they carry the weight of 41 years of Open era men’s tennis: Robin Soderling defeated Rafael Nadal in the fourth round of the 2009 French Open on Sunday. [...]