Tennis

Soderling, Tsonga to meet in Rotterdam final

Published Feb. 12, 2011 12:00 a.m. ET

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Robin Soderling will defend his title against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the final of the ABN Amro World Tennis Tournament.

The top-seeded Swede rallied from 4-1 down to dismiss Viktor Troicki 7-5, 6-4, breaking the Serb twice in each set Saturday.

The eighth-seeded Tsonga dispatched two-time finalist Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia 6-4, 7-6 (6) in the first semifinal.

Soderling won the Brisbane title in January and is 3-0 against Tsonga, who is trying to end a 15-month title drought.

With Ljubicic serving for the second set at 5-3, Tsonga forced another break then won the decisive tiebreaker. A cross-court forehand put the Frenchman into the final.

''His returns were really clever, but I also had an advantage because I served well,'' Tsonga said. ''It's never easy to play against Ivan.''

Nicolas Escude was the last player to successfully defend the Rotterdam title in 2002.

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