Robin Soderling falls at Australian Open

Associated Press

MELBOURNE, Australia

French Open finalist Robin Soderling is out of the Australian Open following the biggest upset so far in the year’s first major.

Alexandr Dolgopolov stopped Soderling’s eight-match winning streak with a 1-6, 6-3, 6-1, 4-6, 6-2 victory early Monday, reaching the quarterfinals in his first trip to Melbourne.

The fourth-seeded Soderling hadn’t dropped a set during his surge that started with his run to the final at the Brisbane tuneup event. He dominated the opening set but couldn’t keep it up against the 22-year-old Ukrainian, making his fourth appearance in a major.

Dolgopolov’s cross-court backhand to bring up his first match point was typical of the 50 winners he hit against a stunned Soderling, the highest of the seeded players knocked out of the men’s draw.

Soderling saved three match points, but his run came to an end with another unforced error, his 51st. He was a win away from completing a set of quarterfinals appearances at all four majors.

Dolgopolov earned nine breaks in the match, including three times after conceding a break himself in the fifth set. The 26-year-old Soderling had only dropped his serve twice this year.

“I’m trying to get his weak side and play uncomfortable for him — then if I have chances to make winners, that’s my game,” Dolgopolov said. “He has one of the hardest [serves] on tour but I was able to read his serve pretty well.

“I saw his shots pretty well, so it paid off.”

He next plays either 2010 finalist Andy Murray of Britain or No. 11 Jurgen Melzer.

Dolgopolov said his father worked as a coach for the likes of Andrei Medvedev, so he sometimes hit with the players when they were practicing.

“For sure I had some good times. I was a bit maybe annoying for some players to play with me,” he said. “It was nice to start a tennis career like that.”

In the earlier women’s match, No. 25 Petra Kvitova beat No. 22 Flavia Pennetta 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.

Andy Roddick’s fourth-round 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 loss to 19th-seeded Stanislas Wawrinka on Sunday night means there’s no Americans in the men’s or women’s quarterfinals.

The eighth-seeded Roddick was the last American man standing. The women were out before the third round ended.

Roddick’s ouster came on a day when Roger Federer equaled Jimmy Connors’ Open era mark by reaching his 27th straight quarterfinal at a major, and Francesca Schiavone won the longest women’s match in Grand Slam history — a 6-4, 1-6, 16-14 victory over Svetlana Kuznetsova that took 4 hours, 44 minutes.

No. 3 Novak Djokovic and No. 6 Tomas Berdych also won in the fourth round. Among the women, No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki and No. 9 Li Na advanced, while No. 14 Maria Sharapova lost to No. 30 Andrea Petkovic.

Federer beat Tommy Robredo 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 to reach the quarterfinals for the 27th major in a row. Connors’ mark came between 1973 and 1983 — although he didn’t play every major because he was hurt or didn’t travel to Australia.

Schiavone, the French Open champion, saved six match points, then converted on her third match point in the longest women’s match at a major in terms of time in the Open era. The longest previous record was set in Australia last year when Barbora Zahlavova-Strycova beat Regina Kulikova 7-6 (5), 6-7 (10), 6-3 in 4:19.