Tomas Berdych destroys Blaz Kavcic; moves into the semi-finals – SkiStar Swedish Open 2011
In the first quarterfinal match of the 2011 SkiStar Swedish Open played on Friday, third seed Tomas Berdych easily defeated Blaz Kavcic in a swift 6-1, 6-4 victory. The stage is partially set for a potentially explosive and highly
anticipated semi final match between Berdych and top seed Robin Soderling. Soderling is now only one match away from the semi finals. He faces Italian Potito Starace in the quarter final today.
Kavcic and Berdych met today for the second time this season and Berdych now holds a lead of 2-0 in head to head rankings. Prior to this the two met in January at the Chennai Open, with Berdych amassing a 6-3, 6-3 lead over his
opponent. Berdych opened this tournament in the second round; he had earlier received a bye. The fourth seed easily overpowered Teymuraz Gabashvili and limited him to a score of 6-2, 6-2. The eighth ranked Czech is now in the midst of a hugely successful season
and his recent win has upped his record to 33-14 for the year. Berdych has been a runner up in the tournament twice, first against Rafael Nadal in 2005 and then again against Tommy Robredo in 2008.
Meanwhile Kavcic too has had a hugely successful year and has bagged almost 12 ATP match wins. But at 24, Kavcic hasn’t managed a single title or even made an appearance in the final round of a match. The Slovenian recently veered
past Julien Benneteau in the first round and luckily got a walk over past Juan Monaco to the quarter finals.
Serving the opening set Berdych steadily built up the score to 3-0 by registering a breakpoint early on in the game. Kavcic then won his lone point in the set to up the score to 3-1. Berdych registered another serve break further
in the game and sealed the set with an effective 6-1 win.
Kavcic opened serve in the second set, which proved to be slightly more competitive. Berdych converted a breakpoint in the first game of the set but Kavcic continued clambering along. He had an impressive first serve percentage
of 70% in the set but it failed to win him the points which mattered. Berdych won 21 service points against Kavcic’s 18 while Kavcic had 10 return points, one more that Berdych. The score at the set’s end was 6-4 in Berdych’s favour.
Berdych moves on into the semi finals and will face the winner of the match between Potito Starace and Robin Soderling.
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