Tomas Berdych advances to quarters at Sony Ericson Open
7th seeded Czech Tomas Berdych rallied past German Florian Mayer in a three set thriller on Tuesday. He registered a 6-3, 2-6, 7-6(4) win over the German to advance to the quarter-finals at Tennis Center Crandon Park
in Miami.
World number seven had destroyed the German in their last meeting at Munich’s clay court in 2007 with a breadstick. In this event, he faced some bumps but still overpowered world number 39 Mayer and extended his lead in the head
to head series by 4-0.
The 25-year-old Czech displayed tremendous skills in the opening set as he held his entire serves spectacularly and saved the only breakpoint. Though he double faulted twice and had an acceptable first serve share of 59 percent
as compared to slightly higher of Mayer’s 60 percent, Berdych earned an exceptional 94 percent win on it. He also found two breakpoint opportunities and he converted one breakpoint opportunity to his advantage in the eighth game to win the set with a 6-3 score
line.
Mayer on the other side of net got back on track as he re-focused into the match. He held his serve superbly in the first game and broke the Czech serve in the second game to extend the lead by 2-0. The 27-year-old then held his
entire serves and broke the youngster’s serve again by a backhand winner in the fifth game to clinch the set with a 6-2 win. Despite double faulting twice and produced no ace but still he outclassed Berdych by having a much better first serve percentage of
74 percent as opposed to Czech’s 42 percent. Mayer also earned an astonishing 93 percent win on it.
Both players entered the decider set in top form and levelled each other out. Berdych committed five double faults, earned equally winning points on his almost similar first serve but he managed to hold his entire serves. Furthermore
he neither conceded nor found a breakpoint opportunity and the set went to tiebreaker. The Czech finally clinched the set with a 7-6(4) win over the German after prevailing in the tiebreaker.
He will next face world number one Rafael Nadal. He needs to practice much harder if he intends to overwhelm the top seeded Spaniard.
24-year-old Nadal reached the quarters after destroying 21st seeded Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov with a breadstick. He converted four out of seven breakpoint opportunities to his advantage to ease past the Ukrainian.
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