2010 Barclays ATP World Tour Finals: Match Preview – Tomas Berdych versus Rafael Nadal
World number one Spaniard Rafael Nadal meets Czech Tomas Berdych in a pivotal match on Friday. The two professionals are playing there last round-robin stage match. With no qualifications from Group A yet, results of this match
will play an important role as to who wins Group A and joins Roger Federer and Andy Murray in the last four.
Rafa currently enjoys a win-loss mark of 2-0 in the event after defeating American Andy Roddick on Monday and Serb Novak Djokovic on Wednesday. This is Nadal’s sixth qualification into the season finale. His personal bests were
in 2006 and 2007 when he made it to the semis. He was forced to pull out of the event in 2005 and 2008 due to an injury. His career worst at the season finale came in 2009 when he exited the tournament without a single win. Despite a decorated career of multiple
Grand Slams and an Olympic medal, a title at the World Tour Finals has always eluded Nadal. However, this time round having won the career Grand Slam with the 2010 United States Open win, the Spaniard is much motivated for a title win. Nadal came into the
event with a win-loss mark of 67-9 and seven titles, which included three Grand Slam titles.
The Czech, on the other hand, is the only professional to come into the event with no title to his name this season. Making his debut this year, Berdych was able to earn a qualification after maintaining his 6th position
in the world ranking this season. Although Berdych did not win any title this year, he performed impressively at the Grand Slams making it to the semifinal in the Roland Garros and the final of the Wimbledon Championship.
Meeting for the twelfth time on the courts, Nadal leads their head-to-head score by 8-3. Their recent meeting was at the Wimbledon Championship final where Nadal did away with Berdych in straight sets. Although Rafa commands an
enormous lead in their career head-to-head, their hard court meeting mark rests at 3-3. The only time Berdych has won against the Spaniard has been on hard courts. Maybe this time round, Berdych can repeat those feats. Nonetheless, if Berdych defeats Nadal
in two sets and Djokovic triumphs over Roddick, fans might be forced to see Rafa heading home.
Talking about his match with Berdych, Nadal said, "I won two important matches in the round-robin but I am not qualified. I could meet with no-one in the semi-finals, I could meet with the island of Mallorca in the semi-finals
and I could meet with Federer or everyone in the other group. I have to think the minimum is to win a set to be in the semi-final, so it's not going to be easy against Tomas."
Berdych currently sports a 1-1 mark in the event. Berdych lost his opening match to Djokovic on Monday in straight sets. However, he managed to keep his chances of a semifinal qualification alive after enjoying a straight set win
over Roddick on Wednesday.
Berdych, after a win over Roddick is excited over the prospect of playing Nadal. While talking to press, he said, "I think for me that's the best schedule for this week, to play maybe the last match of the season against the
world number one, or if I can do well then to beat the number one and have a chance to play more in this tournament."
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