Soderling edges out Ferrer

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It is still all to play for in Group B at the ATP World Tour Finals after Robin Soderling's 7-5 7-5 victory over David Ferrer ensured all four players could still qualify for the semi-finals at London's O2 Arena.

The result was in many ways more interesting than the match, and the straight-sets scoreline means both that Roger Federer will have to wait to reach the semi-finals and that the two qualifiers will not be confirmed until after the final match in the group on Thursday.

Any other result would have put Federer through following his 6-4 6-2 win over Andy Murray earlier, and the scenario means there could be a repeat of last year's drama, which saw the British No.1 eliminated by one game.

On that occasion, Juan Martin Del Potro was left on court for a number of minutes not knowing whether he had qualified or not and, although tournament organisers promised that would never happen again, they must have been hoping for a different outcome on Tuesday night.

Soderling looked the more likely winner from the start, with his power game troubling Ferrer. He missed out on break point opportunities midway through the first set but took his chance with the Spaniard serving to stay in contention at 5-6.

Ferrer saved three set points but on the fourth a superb forehand pass from Soderling proved just too good.

Both players had put in disappointing performances in their first round-robin matches, with Soderling losing heavily to Murray and Ferrer to Federer.

The world No.4 was much more on his game tonight, though, and took control of the match with a break to lead 4-2 in the second set.

There was a late twist when Ferrer broke back with Soderling serving for the match but he then failed to hold his own serve to give the Swede victory.

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