Tomas Berdych vs Janko Tipsarevic – Quarterfinal Preview: Rogers Cup 2011
Seventh seeded Czech Tomas Berdych plays his quarterfinal match at the 2011 Rogers Cup on Friday, 10th August at the Stade Uniprix in Montreal, Canada taking on the fast rising Serb Janko Tipsarevic.
Playing in his sixteenth event this year, Berdych, a former world number six, doesn’t have much to show for this season. Although Berdych has no title wins for the year, he has made it to at least almost all of the quarterfinals
in the year so far. The only exceptions lie at Indian Wells, Monte Carlo and Wimbledon with Berdych seeing early round exits in all of them. The Czech also saw a first round exit at this year’s edition of Roland Garros.
Starting the year ranked 6th in the world, Berdych slipped to the ninth spot after he failed to defend his runners up spot at Wimbledon. Sporting an acceptable 19-7 on hard courts for the season, Berdych comes to the
Canadian Open with a miserable, almost-at-par 7-6 career mark here. Having never won a title here, the furthest Berdych has ever progressed to here is the quarterfinal round, a feat he achieved once in 2006 losing to Frenchman Richard Gasquet and then last
year in 2010 losing to former world number one, Roger Federer.
The highest ranked Czech and the only one in the top ten, Berdych has what it takes to go toe to toe with the top ranked players on tour. With at least a victory each over all of them, Berdych has at one point or the other defeated
all of the top four. In this very same tournament, four years ago, Berdych survived a mid match lapse as he did away with Rafael Nadal in three sets to achieve his career best.
Facing Tipsarevic in his third quarterfinal here, Berdych goes into the match with an official 0-2 trail in the career head-to-head though their all time career meetings stand at a level 2-2 since the Czech had earlier defeated
the Serb in their meetings on the Challenger Tour twice.
A fast rising professional in the Serbian ranks, Tipsarevic is the third Serb ranked in the top fifty, ranked behind world number one Novak Djokovic and world number fifteen Viktor Troicki. Sporting an 18-9 on hard courts this
year, his best performance for the surface came at Delray Beach when he made it all the way to the finals before losing to Juan Martin Del Potro.
A novice at the Canadian Masters, Tipsarevic is appearing in only his third year here though he has never made it past the first round. His 2010 appearance at the event was halted in the first round by Philipp Kohlschreiber.
Prediction: Although Tipsarevic has the statistical edge, Berdych is expected to move past the Serb into the semis in three sets.
Tags: