Soderling into first Open fourth round

MELBOURNE: Sweden's Robin Soderling reached the fourth round at the Australian Open for the first time with a straight-sets victory over Jan Hernych of the Czech Republic on Saturday.

Fourth seed Soderling, a two-time French Open finalist, was always in control of his match on Hisense Arena, winning 6-3, 6-1, 6-4 over the 241st-ranked Hernych in just under two hours.

Soderling has a poor record at the Australian Open after only winning two matches in five previous visits, but victories this year have put him into the last 16 where he could face 2008 finalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

The Swede was strong from the baseline, hitting 14 forehand winners among his total of 33 winners and broke Hernych's serve a total of six times, three in succession in the second set.

Soderling has reached the quarter-finals or better at every Grand Slam event except the Australian Open.

He finished runner-up at Roland Garros in 2009 to Roger Federer and reached last year's French Open final where he went down to Rafael Nadal.

Soderling extended his current unbeaten run this season to 8-0 after preparing for the Open by winning the lead-up Brisbane International for his first title in Australia.

He also reclaimed the world number four ranking from Andy Murray following his Brisbane success. It was Hernych's first time in the third round of a Grand Slam in his 19th major.