Tomas Berdych beats Ivo Karlovic to move into quarterfinal – Rogers Cup 2011
Tomas Berdych, from Czech, played his 3rd round match at the 2011 Rogers Cup on Thursday against Croatian, Ivo Karlovic. The 1 hour 42 minutes match ended in favour of the Czech, beating the 32-year-old Croatian in straight
sets 6-3, 7-6(2). The match was played at the Stade Uniprix Circuit hard court in Montreal.
Playing head-to-head for the 4th time, the two stars went in a thrilling battle to win the quarter-final seat. Berdych, currently at world No.9, decimated his 32-year-old opponent in straight sets, however, came close
of losing the second set.
In their earlier battles, Karlovic had dominated the head-to-head record by 2 games to 1. However, that difference was covered up at the hard court in Montreal. Ranked as the world No.125, Karlovic did put forward a strong defence
but Berdych was simply mesmerising. Although the Croatian had a dead accurate serve but he still could not pull it off in the end. Nevertheless his play was much appreciated.
Opening the match, Berdych served first and rolled the dices 1-0. Karlovic soon followed off with saving a breakpoint and levelled the scores at 1-1. The Czech serving next, took away game 3 of the match and broke the Croatian
in game 4 to grab a convincing 3-1 lead.
Game 5 went, again, in favour of the Czech as he continued to extend his lead to 4-1. The set went on to a total of 9 games. Out of the last 4 Berdych carried away with two to finish off the set 6-3 leading the match 1-0. The
world No.9 aced his challenger an amazing 7 times in the set together with an unbreakable defence leading to his win.
The second set had all the controversies. An astonishing fact was that the two played twelve games with no breaks. The set started off with Karlovic serving first and taking the advantage lead, 1-0. However, the Czech world No.9
followed and levelled the scores at every point. Eventually a clean game turned into a dirty tiebreaker.
Although the Croatian seemed stronger, serving 9 aces in the set and with a concrete defence, he still lost the tiebreaker. Although the Croatian managed 70 percent accuracy on 1st with an 83 percent win, he still could
not best Berdych.
Finally the set finished off 7-6(2) with the Czech world No.9 qualifying into the quarter-finals of the Rogers Cup. Berdych would now face the Serbian world No.24 Janko Tipsarevic for a seat in the semis.
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