Nadal's long serving ritual has long been complained by the fans and players off the court. The serious of things he would do before every serve starts with fastening the sock, and then an optional poking the asshole - I am not kidding. He would then fixing the hair, stare at the opponent, then bounce the ball, and then serve.
The soderling match is delayed 8 times by rain, spanned over 4 days -- a record by itself.
The hard-hitting soderling added some spice to the match that already caught a lot of ppl's attention by mocking Nadal's ass poking. This was at the beginning of the 5th set.
Nadal was caught with big surprise, and then really pissed off -- from reading his reaction in this face. Nadal reacted with a break of serve to go up 2:0 in the 5th set.
Two days later Nadal won the match in 5.
One more incident during the match was Soderling's stroke caught the tape but flipped over on Nadal's point. Instead of offering a usual apology to the opponent, Soderling pumped his fist.
In after-match interview. Nadal commented: "... this is the worst of the possible worst..."
Soderling replied: "... I don't think I need to appologize at the happiest moment of my life ..."