ROTTERDAM, The Netherlands -- Defending champion Robin Soderling of Sweden and France's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga were semifinal winners Saturday and will meet for the title at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament.
The top-seeded Soderling notched a 7-5, 6-4 win over Serbia's Viktor Troicki after the eighth-seeded Tsonga advanced with a 6-4, 7-6 (8-6) victory over Croatia's Ivan Ljubicic.
Soderling will play in his second final of 2011, having beaten Andy Roddick for the title at the Australian Open tuneup in Brisbane. He is 7-10 all-time in ATP finals, including 1-1 in Rotterdam. In addition to last year's win over Mikhail Youzhny, he also lost in the 2008 finale to Michael Llodra.
The fourth-ranked Soderling improved to 13-2 all-time in Rotterdam. He had the lone break of serve in the first set Saturday and had the only break of the second in the 10th game to finish the match.
In the opener, Tsonga broke serve in the fifth game on the way to capturing the first set, but fell behind 5-2 in the second. He rallied to force a tiebreaker, which he won with a cross-court forehand.
Tsonga is 5-1 all-time in title matches, with his lone loss coming in the 2008 Australian Open final against Novak Djokovic. He will play in an ATP final for the first time since winning his last title at the 2009 Tokyo event.
Ljubicic was trying to reach the final of this event for the third time in his career. The 31-year-old veteran was the runner-up in 2005, losing to Roger Federer, and again in 2007 when he lost to Youzhny.
Soderling will enter Sunday's final with a lifetime record of 3-0 against Tsonga and has never dropped a set in the three matches. The two last met in the round of 16 at the 2010 Indian Wells Masters.
