Perhaps Robin Soderling's greatest claim is that he is the only man to have beaten Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros.

The Swede stunned the four-time defending champion in the last-sixteen at the 2009 French Open, and went on to reach his first Grand Slam final, where, ranked No. 25 in the world, he lost to Roger Federer, who won the French Open for the first time, and in doing so claimed his career Grand Slam.

Soderling had been a talented junior, ranked 4th on the junior tour, but had failed to make the breakthrough on the senior tour.

After making his debut on the ATP Tour in 2001, he won his first tournament in Lyon three years later, beating Xavier Malisse in the final, and breaking into the top 50.

The following year his progress was cut short by a knee injury, and his injury disrupted his season, having surgery in March, and later again in October.

He caused controversy in 2007, when in an epic five-set match against Nadal at Wimbledon, Soderling walked off the court in protest at Nadal's lengthy delays between serves, then mocked the Spaniard by imitating Nadal's habit of tugging on his shorts.

At the end of 2008, Soderling announced former world No. 2 Magnus Norman as his coach, and the appointment paid dividends. Up to that point, Soderling had three titles to his name, but had never made it past the third round of a Grand Slam. However, he altered this in impressive fashion, knocking out the defending champion before reaching the final, becoming the first Swede to reach the Roland Garros final since Norman in 2000.

As a result, Soderling jumped up to 12 in the rankings, and in October became the first Swede since Norman to reach the top ten, and has since cemented his status as a top ten player.

If 2009 was a breakthrough season for Soderling, 2010 was one of consolidation. A second consecutive French Open final appearance (and a second consecutive defeat - this time to Nadal) helped him break into the world's top five for the first time, and titles in Rotterdam and Paris saw him reach a career-high ranking of No. 4.

Career high
Ending Roger Federer's impressive streak of reaching the 23 consecutive Grand Slam semi-finals, beating the world No.1 in the quarter-finals at the 2010 French Open. Soderling had never beaten Federer in 12 previous meetings.

Career low
A knee injury in 2005 that plagued his season and saw him win just six of 16 matches.

Quotes
"If you look at all the top guys, they're not playing the best tennis every week. Maybe you have three or four, maybe five matches in a year where you feel like you play really, really well. The other 50 matches you still have to win, and then all the top guys, they win a lot of matches against good players without playing the best tennis. I think that's the biggest difference between a guy ranked in the top 10 and the guy ranked in the top 30, 40."

"Robin has every attribute that tennis players should have, but he can obviously do better in everything he does out there. First in the world is and should be the goal. He continually reaches new levels and now I dare say it - Robin will become world number one, and he will do it quicker than we think." Former Swedish world No. 1 and 11-time Grand Slam champion Bjorn Borg

Trivia
Soderling's fiancée Jenni Mostrom is a talented golfer. She had a scholarship at Nova Southeastern University in Florida.