2011 Open 13: Marin Cilic vs. Tomas Berdych – Preview
Kicking off the quarterfinal round at the 2011 Open 13 in Marseille on Friday is the Croat giant, Marin Cilic as he takes on the top ranked Czech, Tomas Berdych.
Ranked 7th in the world, Berdych will play his third tour level event for the season. Starting the year as 6th in the world, Berdych was the top seed at the 2011 Aircel Chennai Open. Opening against Frederico Gil, Berdych continued
his ascent as he moved past Ivan Dodig and Blaz Kavcic. Making his way into the semi-finals, Berdych was pitted against eventual champion Stanislas Wawrinka. Losing to the Swiss in straight sets, Wawrinka exited the event.
His next stop on the courts came two weeks later when he appeared in the 2011 Australian Open as the sixth seed. Doing justice to his seed position, Berdych defeated Fernando Verdasco in the fourth round to take a spot in the final eight. However, pitted
against eventual champion Novak Djokovic, Berdych once again exited an event following a straight set defeat. Post Australian Open, Berdych slipped to number seven in the rankings courtesy David Ferrer’s semi-final run.
Berdych appeared at the Rotterdam event last week as the fourth seed. As expected Berdych once again made it to the quarterfinal round but then suffering from flu, the Czech had to pull out of his match against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
Playing in Marseille for the fourth time this week, Berdych surpassed his career best here when he defeated local qualifier Edouard Roger-Vasselin to secure a spot for himself in the final eight. Being the second seed, Berdych had received a bye into the
second round.
Now pitted against Cilic, Berdych not only enjoys the advantage of being ranked higher but he also has the statistical-c*m-psychological advantage of leading the head to head score 2-0. Having last played in 2009, the pair met in the second round of the
Shanghai Masters with Berdych surviving a mid match lapse to emerge victorious against the Croat.
Talking about his match against Cilic, Berdych said, “We both play very similar games, we like to play aggressive from the baseline. It’s indoors, the surface is quite fast, so you can play some other tricks and do it a little bit differently and I will
try to do it like that. I’m looking forward to the match.”
A former top ten player, Cilic has recently seen a slip in the rankings. Starting the year ranked 15th in the world, Cilic has slipped more than 13 places in the ranking now holding the 28th position.
Starting the year at Chennai, Cilic failed to defend his title losing to Kei Nishikori. A semi-finalist at the 2010 Australian Open, Cilic’s fourth round exit caused him to lose points making him slip in the rankings.
Trying to make it back into the top ten, Cilic has enjoyed two quarterfinals run in the last two weeks making it to the third round of the PBZ Zagreb Indoors and the Rotterdam event.
Prediction: The disparity in the rankings plus the fact that Cilic has never beaten Berdych tip the odds considerably in the Czech’s favour. Although the Croat might push the match to three sets, Berdych may eventually emerge as the victor.
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