2011 World Tennis Tournament: Tomas Berdych vs. Guillermo Garcia-Lopez
Czech giant, Thomas Berdych continues playing on the ATP Tour on Tuesday as he plays world number 26, in Rotterdam. The first stop of the ATP 500 events, Rotterdam is currently playing host to the 2011 ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament at the Ahoy Rotterdam indoor sporting arena.
Berdych was one of the six professionals to make an unofficial start in 2011, as he took part in the exhibition event at Abu Dhabi. Moving past Marcos Baghdatis, Berdych made it into the semi-final of the event where he lost to eventual champion, Rafael Nadal.
The Czech’s first official stop on the tour was the 2011 Aircel Chennai Open where he was the top seed. Making his way past Frederico Gil, Ivan Dodig and Blaz Kavcic, Berdych moved into the semis without dropping a single set. However, the semi-final was as far as the Czech would go since he was ousted by eventual champion, Stanislas Wawrinka in straight sets.
His run in the in the Grand Slam Down Under as the sixth seed took him past Marco Crugnola, Philipp Kohlschreiber, Richard Gasquet and Fernando Verdasco all the way into the quarterfinal. However, pitted against top Serb, Novak Djokovic, Berdych was forced to exit from the event as he lost in straight sets.
David Ferrer’s semi-final run at the Grand Slam caused Berdych to slip to number seven in the world rankings. However, still in the top ten, the Czech is definitely not a force to be taken easily.
Debuting in 2005, Berdych has put in six straight years at the event though he has never made it past the second round. His 2005 run here was stopped short by Russian Nikolay Davydenko while his last run in 2009 ended in the first round, with Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov defeating him in three sets.
Fresh from a quarterfinal run and enjoying top form, Berdych hopes to go further in the event this year and perhaps even clinch a singles title here. Partnering Dmitry Tursunov, Berdych already holds a double title here winning it back in 2008. This year again appearing in the singles as well as the doubles, Berdych teamed up with Kohlschreiber and the two have already made their way into the quarterfinals after defeating the team of Sergiy Stakhovsky and Mikhail Youzhny.
Garcia-Lopez on the other hand is a complete novice at the event since this is only his second year here. His debut in 2010 was utterly disappointing, since the Spaniard failed to make it past the first round, losing to Marsel Ilhan.
Ranked 26th in the world, Lopez has participated in three tour level events in the year so far. Starting at the Doha event, Lopez enjoyed a quarterfinal run before losing to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. The next week, Lopez played in the Medibank International Sydney, though he failed to make it past the second round. His Grand Slam run also ended in the third round at the hands of eventual runner up, Andy Murray.
The Spaniard’s best performance yet came last week when he played at the PBZ Zagreb Indoors. Third seeded in the event, Lopez made it all the way into the semis losing to eventual champion, Ivan Dodig.
Although Lopez is ranked twenty places below Berdych, the Spaniard does enjoy an edge against the Czech. He not only leads the all time head to head by 2-1 but he has also never been beaten by the Czech on hard courts. Is the Spaniard really better on hard courts, or was he a one hit wonder?
Prediction: Despite the disparity in the rankings, the two players are too closely matched to pick a favourite. In fact we might even witness another seed upset, since Lopez has defeated Berdych before and if he carries over his form from last week he might just do it again.
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