Tomas Berdych wins Shanghai Masters opener
The wins have dried up for Tomas Berdych somewhat since he carved a path to the Wimbledon final this summer, but the Czech today at least managed to put one win on the board at the Shanghai Masters 1000.
After receiving a first-round bye, Berdych made a flying start to his second-round match against Tommy Robredo, taking the opening set without dropping a game, despite serving with an unimpressive 38% first serve percentage for the set; although when the seventh seed did manage to land a first serve in the box he won the point on nine out of 10 occasions.
His 43rd ranked opponent, who had won their last meeting at the Paris Masters 1000 in 2009 to level their head-to-head record at 3-3, made much more of a contest of the second set but with each player having been broken twice in the opening eight games, it was Berdych who struck one more time to close out the match 6-0, 6-4 in one hour and 24 minutes.
The victory is the first small step for the 25-year-old to finish the season strongly after experiencing a purple patch at the French Open, where he reached the semi-finals of a Grand Slam for the first time in his career, and Wimbledon, where he was runner-up to the all-conquering Rafael Nadal.
Recently, however, the world No. 7 has gone off the boil, winning only one of his last six matches before today – including losing in the first round of the US Open and in both singles rubbers in the Czech Republic’s losing Davis Cup semi-final against Serbia.
Berdych will now face the winner of the second-round encounter between Guillermo Garcia-Lopez – who defeated world No. 1 Nadal in the semi-finals of the Thailand Open just a couple of weeks ago – and Andy Roddick as he bids to book a place in the quarter-finals.
Roddick was given a virtual free pass in his first-round match against Philipp Kohlschreiber, with the German retiring hurt with the 10th seeded American leading 6-3, 2-1.
While Berdych has at least mustered one win in Shanghai, his Davis Cup teammate Radek Stepanek suffered perhaps the upset of the day as Chinese wildcard Bai Yan ousted the world No. 30 in straight sets, winning the match 6-3, 6-4.
David Ferrer, however, was back on the winner’s list only the day after losing the final of the China Open to Novak Djokovic, the 11th seed running out the 7-6(2), 6-1 winner over France’s Michael Llodra.
Also winning his first-round match was John Isner, the 6ft 9in American fighting his way past Poland’s Lukasz Kubot 4-6, 7-6(9), 7-6(7). His reward is a second-round clash with 16-time Grand Slam champion Roger Federer.
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