Coming off two match points, five-time Open champion Roger Federer lost to third-seeded Novak Djokovic in a riveting five-set semifinal match, 5-7, 6-1, 7-5, 6-2, 7-5.
The transition from clay to grass is very quick and Rafael Nadal, Andy Roddick and Novak Djokovic were all caught out at Queen's, while Roger Federer lost to Lleyton Hewitt in Halle.
So far, Federer has lost 11 games this tournament, and he won't have to play Rafael Nadal or Novak Djokovic until the final.
Federer had lost each of the last three finals to Nadal and the Spaniard's shock defeat by Soderling in round four suggested another huge upset was possible.
Henman has a 6-6 record against Federer but has lost their last five meetings.
Roger Federer, who lost to Murray in the Rogers Cup final in Canada, is the defending champion in Cincinnati.
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Federer had not lost before the final at SW19 since 2002 and was bidding to win a record-equalling seventh title.
Berdych, who reached the final the year he beat Federer here, lost in a first-round upset Monday, 7-6(5), 7-6(4), 7-6(4) to Ernests Gulbis, a hard-hitting but erratic underachiever.
Federer had never lost a tiebreak in a U.S. Open final, winning his four previous ones, but Del Potro ended that sequence by taking the tie-break 7-5 to tie the scores.
French Open champion Nadal had lost to Federer in the last two finals.
Haas has twice lost to Federer in semifinals at Halle, in 2005 and 2006 as the Swiss won the title four years in a row.
Murray could have reached second in the rankings above defending champion Roger Federer -- who lost to Nadal -- if he had made it to the final.
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It started with a semifinal run and a grueling, five-set, nearly five-hour loss to Djokovic in Melbourne, followed by his first final at Wimbledon, where he lost to Federer.
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There is also the 24-year-old Frenchman Benoit Paire, whose flashy game and theatrical court presence have recently produced results, including a straight-sets victory over Juan Martin del Potro in Rome (Paire eventually lost to Federer in the semifinals).
Richard Krajicek lost to Roger Federer at the Ordina Open in his first match after a 20-month absence through injury.
It will be his second grand slam final, having lost to Roger Federer in the final on the 2008 U.S. Open.
That year he lost to Roger Federer, who could be his opponent in the semifinals this year if Monfils gets that far.
However, he was still smarting from an overrule when facing break point in the second set, when the line judge mistakenly called a Federer shot long and the Swiss lost the replayed point.
Federer, who won Wimbledon but lost the Olympic final last year, may be vying for the top honours with Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray but his chances of success are threatened by being nearly five years more senior than the next oldest.
He made his first Wimbledon final, and after a rain delay and a roof closing, he lost to a rejuvenated Roger Federer.
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It was Federer's first defeat since he lost to Djokovic in the final of the Montreal Masters in August and only his seventh loss of the year.
He has lost all three previous encounters with Federer, two of them on clay.
Though top seed Federer achieved his 39th successive win, he lost a tie-break for the first time in 16.
It's always disappointing to lose a final. (In other finals) I lost five times to Djokovic, Federer, now Del Potro.
Federer has won their last two meetings but has lost all four times the players have met on clay.
Soderling, who has now lost all of his 10 matches against Federer, had nothing to lose and engineered break points in games four and 10.
Del Potro, who lost to world No. 3 Roger Federer in the Rotterdam final last weekend, will face 2010 champion Michael Llodra in Sunday's final.
Sixth seed Roddick, who lost the 2004 and 2005 finals to Federer, was pushed hard before beating Jurgen Melzer 7-6 (7-2) 7-6 (7-2) 4-6 6-3 after almost three hours on court.
Spain's Rafael Nadal closed the gap on world number one Roger Federer after reaching the final in Miami, where he lost to Russia's Nikolay Davydenko.
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