Barclays ATP World Tour Finals; Tomas Berdych surpasses Andy Roddick to keep his semifinal chances alive in London
The professional tennis ace from Czech Republic Tomas Berdych regained his confidence versus Andy Roddick on Wednesday to keep his hopes alive for making his way into the semi final round from Group A at the 2010 Barclays ATP World
Tour Finals in London.
The 25-year-old Czech was at his aggressive best in a two setter win over Roddick, from the United States of America on Wednesday. The final match score was 7-5, 6-3.
Berdych, who made his debut on the ATP World Tour back in 2002 after his victory reflected, "It feels great. None of these matches are easy. I still have a chance to have it in my hands in the last match.”
Meanwhile, the world number one Rafael Nadal of Spain also got the better of Novak Djokovic, the third seed, in two sets during an evening session match. The final score line of a battle that lasted for one hour and fifty two minutes
was 7-5, 6-2.
The Spaniard by virtue of this victory also made his way into the semi final round in the elite eight man field in London.
Berdych, the Monte Carlo resident, prevented a total of two set points at 4-5, 15/40 in the opening set when he blasted an unreturned serve and the American fired a smash wide after running around a forehand.
It proved to be the turning point as, in the next game; Berdych blasted a strong forehand return winner off a 110 miles per hour second serve. It left his American foe motionless and the Czech as a result wrapped up the forty nine
minutes opening set with a service hold to 15.
At 2-2 in the decisive set, Andy’s temper boiled over at 30/40 when he missed a smash off a superb defensive lob. The eighth ranked American afterwards never regained his composure.
Despite Roddick smashing an ace to open his last service game at 3-5, Berdych who is currently ranked number six in the South African Airways ATP list, took four straight points to seal win in the end. The battle was stretched
to a time period of eighty five minutes.
Roddick, the Texas resident, ended the pair's ninth meeting by hitting a forehand into the net. The American however still leads the pair’s overall head to head series at 6-3.
"On the set points, the first return I hit well. I came under it, hit a really good forehand. He kind of took a chance a little bit. He had not gone forehand on a second serve. He went there on both of them. Obviously I was not
looking for a forehand on either one. In retrospect, I should have been. I do not think he came into the match with a lot of confidence. Being able to get through that definitely raised his confidence level,” said the top ranked American player after his loss
on Wednesday.
The owner of five ATP singles titles, Berdych, who was brushed aside by Novak Djokovic of Serbia in his opening match at the season finale in two sets on Monday, fired a total of twenty eight winners and committed twenty seven
unforced errors on his way to victory. The Czech adopted the same aggressive tactics that took him to the grass court Grand Slam title battle back in July.
The World number six won twelve of sixteen net approaches and smashed six aces to cruise past his opponent on Wednesday.
Roddick, on the other hand, who has made it into the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals on the eighth occasion in a row, dropped to a mark of 0-2 in Group A. He lost his first round-robin group clash at the hands of World number one
Rafael Nadal.
Tags: