“He's still here and has a chance to win 11 times. I don't think we’re ever going to see that again - well, at least not in my lifetime,” joked Soderling in press.

“It's unbelievable. It says so much about him. And what I'm really impressed with is that he looks almost as hungry, or even hungrier than when he won it the first time. You know, he didn't lose any motivation at all. It's amazing to see.”

Soderling kept a keen eye over Nadal’s semi-final with Diego Schwartzman and believes the Rafa backhand wing is the critical area of improvement from the world No.1.

“I would say he's probably as good now as before, and it's just amazing. He’s 32, but if he can stay injury-free, there is nothing that says that he can't win this two, three, four times more. It's unbelievable.”

Looking back to 2009, Soderling offered his blue print for nullifying Nadal on these hallowed clay courts.

“The only chance for any player now is to be really aggressive,” declared Soderling, who joins Novak Djokovic as the two people to blemish the Spaniard’s 84-2 Roland-Garros record. "To beat him in five sets on clay is even more difficult.

“It's an extremely difficult task to do. You have to take a lot of risks, but nothing is impossible.”

As Robin himself proved…