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Berdych seals last four spot
DUBAI - Tomas Berdych battled beyond the erratic excesses of Germany’s Philipp Petzschner to seal a semi-final berth at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Thursday afternoon.
Four of the first five games between the third-seeded Czech and his doggedly, determined opponent saw service breaks before the match settled into some kind of rhythm, with the next six going to the expected plan.
Then, at 6-5 up, Berdych broke with his seventh set point to clinch the opener 7-5 and another late breakthrough in the second – after nine service holds – allowed him to secure a hard-fought 7-5, 6-4 victory.
“If you compare my match on Wednesday (against Nikolay Davydenko) to today’s one (versus Petzschner), I faced two completely different opponents and matches,” the world number seven, 25, said.
“Both of them were very tough, especially today’s match. That’s the way that Philipp likes to play; he serves big, sometimes comes to the net, uses a lot of slice on the backhand side and then he makes a winner just like that.
“He goes for his shots and it seems to me like he doesn’t much care in this situation, in terms of what exact shot – or specific strategy – to play. If he makes the winner, he makes it and what can you do about that?
“Sometimes, he’s just putting the ball in and then – all of a sudden, when you’re not even expecting it – he can go for the shot and make a winner.
“Occasionally, you get points like that and you’re left looking and have nothing to do with it. You’re either in luck or you’re not. “So, that’s what he likes to do – just not give you a rhythm on court at all. That’s his game. That’s how he is playing and how he wants to play, so you just have to deal with that.
“He did quite well, but I was well prepared for today, particularly mentally. These kinds of matches are more mentally – than physically – tough.
“I’m happy that I was able to go through in two sets, we don’t have to be on court anymore now and I can go rest now.”
Berdych rates his win over Davydenko as his finest display of these championships to date, but this success in accounting for an obdurate Petzschner certainly gave him some satisfaction too.
“Today wasn’t the game that I really like, so I cannot count it as my best performance,” he added.
“Today, it wasn’t really about the nice game, fantastic shots, good rhythm and feeling great on court.
“It’s very easy to win when you feel great, you’re serving 15 aces and you just go through easily 6-2, 6-3. It’s easy to win like that.
“But, if you can win a match like today – when you have to fight really from the first point until the last one and you don’t feel that good on court – then it’s even more special.
“He’s an opponent that plays something way different than the other guys and I went through that in two sets, so I’m very happy to just take the match.”
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