2011 Australian Open: Preview – Novak Djokovic vs Tomas Berdych
2008 Australian Open champion, Novak Djokovic sailed into the quarterfinals on Sunday when he defeated fourteenth seeded Nicolas Almagro in straight sets.
A fairly recent star on the tennis horizon, Djokovic quickly made it to the big leagues securing the third position in the ranking almost five years ago. Maintaining that
position, Djokovic has put Serbia on the tennis map.
Djokovic debuted at Melbourne Park in 2006 with his career best coming in 2008 when he clinched his first and so far only Grand Slam title. Making it all the way to the
final without dropping a single set, Djokovic was able to finally clinch the championship after securing a four set win over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
Seeded third in the 2011 Down Under Grand Slam, Djokovic started his seventh run at the event playing Marcel Granollers. A 6-3 victory sandwiched between two breadstick
wins put the Serb into the next round where he was to play Ivan Dodig. Doing away with the Croat in four sets, Djokovic moved ahead to play compatriot, Viktor Troicki.
As luck would have it, Djokovic became the third player after Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray to receive a walkover in this event after his countryman retired from the event
due to a stomach illness. Meeting Nicolas Almagro in the fourth round, Djokovic secured a 6-3, 6-4 victory in the first two sets before wrapping up the match with an impressive bagel set win. In all four opponents, Djokovic has lost only twenty seven games
in eleven sets.
In his attempts to recapture a second title at the event, Djokovic meets Czech number one Tomas Berdych in the quarterfinals. Both players ranking in the top ten truly suggest
that the match is going to be an epic battle.
Having already met five times before, Djokovic leads the career head to head 4-1 though its 4-0 on hard courts. The pair’s last meeting on the courts came in 2010 when the
two met for their round robin match at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals. The Serb thrashed the Czech in straight sets. The only time, Berdych has been able to defeat Djokovic was on the grass courts of Wimbledon when the former made it to the finals of the
2010 event.
A rising star in 2010, Berdych became the first Czech last year to make it into the top ten. Although he has yet to impress so far in 2011, the Czech has held his own so
far into the event. Making it into the quarterfinals, Berdych has surpassed his previous career best at the event.
Deprived of a Grand Slam title so far, maybe this year things might change for the Czech. Moving past four rounds, Berdych has dropped only one set, and lost forty games
in thirteen sets. Berdych’s latest victory at the event came on Saturday when he defeated ninth seeded Spaniard, Fernando Verdasco.
Prediction:
Although Djokovic is the clear favourite to win the match given the statistical c*m psychological advantage of leading the head to head, and the higher ranking, however; Berdych has been known to surprise in the past. Maybe the Czech might finally
win one over the top Serb on the hard court.
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