Rafael Nadal faces Tomas Berdych in Wimbledon final - preview
As Rafael Nadal seeks to keep alive a Wimbledon winning streak that has lasted since 2008, Tomas Berdych is about to walk onto centre court at a Grand Slam for the first time in his career. So, does the challenger have a chance of toppling the world No. 1 in the decider at the All England Club on Sunday?
The answer, based on Berdych’s two most recent performances (we’ll get to Nadal in a moment) has to be “yes”. The Czech has earned the right to be contesting the final in SW19 after ending the title defence hopes of six-time Wimbledon champion Roger Federer in the quarters and then for an encore, sweeping third seed Novak Djokovic aside in straight sets in the semi-final.
The world No. 13 has long been recognised as a player with the potential to feature at this stage of the majors, but it’s only at the last two of them that Berdych has actually realised his talent. The French Open saw the 24-year old in the semi-finals of a Grand Slam for the first time in his career (where he let slide a two-sets-to-love lead against eventual runner-up Robin Soderling), and he’s now followed that up with a Wimbledon final.
Quite simply, Berdych seems to now have achieved the double that has eluded many a promising player and that’s to combine his obvious talent with the self-belief to get him across the line against opponents who are just as skilled, and maybe more so, than he.
“Tomas is a very aggressive player, very good serve, very good flat shots from the baseline,” Nadal said of the man that stands between him and a second Wimbledon title. “So gonna be very, very difficult. Very difficult match. Is very difficult to stop him when he's playing well, and he's playing really well.”
But if Berdych is playing really well, and he undeniably is, then Nadal is approaching a level somewhere akin to that which took him to the Wimbledon title in 2008, when in his third attempt to do so he defeated Federer in the final in London.
His semi-final opponent, Andy Murray, played a match that would have defeated almost anyone else in the draw on Friday. The British No. 1’s serve was on song, and played a counterpunching game that would have worn most other players down. Not Nadal.
It was a match in which the second seed demonstrated once again his uncanny ability to turn defence into attack, running down balls that most others would have struggled to reach and turning his reply into an outright winner. To make matters worse for Murray, Nadal would more often than not choose that crucial game or point in the set to deliver some of his best tennis.
The attacking Berdych, of course, will be a different brand of opponent than the defensive Murray. The world No. 13 possesses the power and the inclination to take the fight right up to Nadal. It’s a tactic that has already worked against two top-five players so far at Wimbledon.
“I think he [Berdych] played very good match against Federer; very good match today against Djokovic,” Nadal said on Friday. He's the best of his draw, so for that reason he's in the final. No one opponent can be more difficult than Tomas to play this final.”
That may be the case from Rafa’s perspective, but most observers could probably think of one man who would prove even tougher to face in the Wimbledon decider this year.
He’s a player who has only been defeated once since April, a period during which he won three Masters 1000 titles and the French Open title and in the process regained the world No. 1 ranking. A player who has proved his Grand Slam credentials on no less than seven occasions throughout his career. And a player who may just be scarily close to his career best form right now.
That player is Nadal himself, and despite Berdych’s achievements so far at Wimbledon this year, this match still looms as a step too far for the 12th seed.
Prediction: Nadal to win the final in four sets.
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