Tommy Haas capsizes Tomas Berdych to reach the semis – Gerry Weber Open 2012
German tennis ace, Tommy Haas, has discovered his best form in Halle, Germany; registering yet another upset by ousting the seventh ranked Czech, Tomas Berdych. The 34-year-old wildcard entrant from Germany won the opening set 6-4; went down in the second
set with scores of 3-6 but clinched the final set 7-5 to qualify for the semi-final spot.
A sloppy start to the match witnessed easy serve holds for both players before the third seed Czech dropped a breakpoint in the fifth game. It was a kind of start the German was looking for to stamp his authority in the match. Suddenly the series of roars
were heard at the arena. Crowd pumped up their national hero who bagged the opening set with consecutive serve holds to love.
Berdych bounced back in the second set and started testing the 87th ranked German. After a tight battle in the sixth game; the Czech managed to exert pressure and was rewarded in the following return game when he clasped on to the breakpoint;
took a lead of 5-3 and prepared to serve for the set. With no pressure at all, Berdych pocketed the final game and levelled the set scores at one apiece.
The final set went down the wire. Both players bagged their respective serve holds for the first 11 games. Haas was tested to his limits in the opening game of the set but managed to squeeze a serve hold. Berdych was hardly examined but the sudden outbreak
left him in no man’s land. He lost the critical breakthrough in the 12th game that proved to be suicidal as it was good enough for the wildcard entrant to book his place in the last four.
Speaking to the media reporters after the match, Haas commented, “I think that everybody who saw the match saw and knew that it was important to hold serve. I think I served well but not as good as he did. When his first serve was really good I could hardly
do anything, even if I did play the ball, he reacted with his forehand and put me under pressure. My task was to hold serve and I did that quite well in the third set. I think it was deuce only once. In the last game when I thought we’d have to play a tie-break,
he gave me two double faults.”
Tommy Haas contests his semi-final match against the defending champion, Philipp Kohlschreiber.
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