Berdych win knocks Djokovic out

Tomas Berdych
12 April 2012

Tomas Berdych ensured world number one Novak Djokovic's stellar season was brought to an end on Friday with a 3-6 7-5 6-1 victory over David Ferrer at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London.

A weary Djokovic lost 3-6 6-3 6-3 to fellow Serb Janko Tipsarevic earlier in the day to leave himself needing a favour from Ferrer to reach the semi-finals.

Bizarrely, the fact the world number one lost actually appeared to have given him a better chance as it meant Ferrer, who had already qualified, had to win to top the group and avoid title favourite Roger Federer in the last four.

That looked exactly how things would turn out as the in-form Spaniard took the first set and twice led by a break in the second. But he could not finish off the job and Berdych found his best form when he needed it most to book a semi-final clash with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga on Saturday evening, while Ferrer must hope for a first win in 12 matches against Federer.

Berdych said: "The feeling is great. It was in my hands and finally I did it after another long one. Maybe I like to be on the court as long as possible."

The key moment of the first set arrived in the eighth game when Berdych gave his serve away rather tamely, blazing a forehand wide on break point. The Czech was going for too much from the back in an effort to out-hit the Spaniard, one of the best movers on tour, and he now faced a major battle to make the last four.

Ferrer had not done anything special in the first set but he upped the level at the start of the second and a perfectly placed backhand gave him the break to lead 2-1. Berdych found some timely inspiration to break straight back, a lovely backhand drop volley too good even for the scampering Ferrer to pick up.

However, it was not long before the world number five was threatening again, and it was another present that gave him the break in the seventh game, Berdych firing a routine forehand long. But back came the Czech again, making Ferrer pay for failing to close out the game from 40-15, and at last he was stringing some good points together.

He would have had a set point had a forehand crept over the net rather than bounced back his side, but when Ferrer served to stay in the set for the second time he cracked, throwing in an uncharacteristic backhand error.

Berdych had hit a rare strain of form, his powerful groundstrokes all finding their mark, and he reeled off 10 straight points at the start of the decider - a change of shirt to shocking pink doing nothing to help his opponent. A second break of serve extended Berdych's lead to 4-0, Ferrer serving a double fault on break point for the second time in the set, and, although the Spaniard managed to avoid a bagel, there was no way back.

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