Tomas Berdych blasts through Florent Serra to reach the quarter-finals – Open Sud de France 2012
Local crowd at the Arena Montpellier, France, witnessed their local hero, Florent Serra, being absolutely manhandled by the world number seven, Tomas Berdych, in the second round of the Open Sud de France on Thursday. The top seed Czech penned an authoritative victory over the French qualifier, Serra, wrapping up the final scores at 6-0, 6-2, to force his way in to the quarter-finals of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 205 event in Montpellier.
It was a completely one-sided affair, with Berdych dominating every second of the match to drive his opponent out of the tournament with the utmost ease. The seventh-ranked Czech spared merely two games for Serra in the entire contest and finished off the proceedings in barely 55 minutes of play. He outclassed the 142nd ranked French in every segment of the game and extended his head-to-head lead over him by 3-1.
The top seed Czech has been in sublime form for the past few months and has sustained his world number seven spot for quite some time now. Berdych has played just one tournament this season so far (the Australian Open) and was ousted in the quarter-finals by the world number two, Rafael Nadal of Spain. He is eyeing to bag his first championship title of the year in Montpellier and his impactful start to the campaign depicts that the world number seven is well on his way.
His 70 per cent precise serve included nine cracking aces and he clinched 25 out of 30 first serve points en route to victory. The top seed was off to a belligerent start in the opening set and went for a six-game killing spree before Serra could hold his serve for the first time in the contest. Berdych took merely 20 minutes to earn the opening set with a bagel and carried on with his winning momentum to nail two more serve breaks in the next set as well. Serra frittered away three vital break opportunities in the match and eventually had to submit in the second set to let Berdych through to the quarters.
Berdych will face the French veteran, Nicolas Mahut, in the round of eight to fight for a spot in the semis. The unseeded French registered a huge upset in the second round when he outplayed sixth seed German, Florian Mayer, to secure a berth in the quarter-final rounds of the Open Sud de France. Mahut will take on Berdych on Friday night to decide the semi-final contender in the draw.
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