Berdych one match away from London

Written by: Global Chick on 9th November 2011

Berdych one match away from London

Czech Republic's Tomas Berdych returns the ball to Croatia's Marin Cilic in the men's singles finals of the China Open Tennis tournament in Beijing, China, on 09 October 2011. Czech Tomas Berdych claimed his first ATP title in nearly two and a half years as he fought back to defeat Marin Cilic in 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 for victory in the final of the China Open on 09 October. EPA/ADRIAN BRADSHAW |

World No. 6 Tomas Berdych is only one match win away from qualifying for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London after defeating Fernando Verdasco of Spain on Tuesday 6-3 7-5 at the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris.

The 2005 Champion was pushed to the limit by Verdasco in the second set in yesterday’s second round match. Berdych looked nervous at times and made some unusual unforced errors. The Czech number one player served for the match at 5-4 in the second set but the Spaniard broke and levelled to 5-5. Berdych showed why he is the higher ranked player by breaking straight back and taking set and the match. Berdych will face the winner of Alex Bogomolov Jr. and Janko Tipsarevic in the third round.

Last week’s runner up in Valencia Juan Monaco downed American qualifier Donald Young 6-4 6-2. The Argentinian will clash with hometown favourite Gilles Simon in the second round.

Andy Roddick beat French wildcard Julien Benneteau 6-4 6-4 in one hour and 20 minutes. The American has no chance of qualifying for London this year, he said, “The writing was o the wall midway through the year when I hadn’t played much. It would have taken something pretty big. So it’s not something I’ve concerned myself with too much.” Roddick could possible face the number to seed Andy Murray if the Scot wins over French qualifier Jeremy Chardy.

John Isner and Stanislas Wawrinka played three tough sets in their first round in Paris on Tuesday. Isner was eventually the winner and the 11 aces he hit during the match helped him to move into the second round. The match finished 6-7 (3) 7-5 7-6 (5). The American will now play lucky loser Igor Kunitsyn of Russia who replaced Juan Martin del Potro in the draw.

Feliciano Lopez had a straight set win over French lefty Michael Llodra 7-6 (7) 6-3. Lopez will play a second Frenchman of the week the number eight seed Gael Monfils in the second round.

France’s top player Jo-Wilfried Tsonga is keeping the Paris crowd happy by moving ahead in the draw. The number six seed moved into the third round with an easy win over Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 6-3 6-4. Tsonga will experience a bit of pressure in the next round. His opponent will be the winner of Nicolas Almagro of Spain and Andreas Seppi of Italy and should Tsonga win this match he is guaranteed a spot at the ATP World Tour Finals at the O2 Arena in London.

“Bercy is a very important tournament for me. Masers or not, I want to play well here. I know that surface suits me and I’m able to have a good result here. The goal for me is really Bercy, the London finals is the cherry on the cake for me,” Tsonga said.

At the top of this week’s draw Ivan Dodig has set up a second round match with World No. 1 Novak Djokovic. The Croatian ousted Italian Fabio Fognini 4-6 6-1 6-3. Djokovic updated his status on Facebook saying he has landed in Paris but is still not sure how his shoulder will react.

Sergiy Stakhovsky prevailed over last week’s Basel finalist Kei Nishikori 6-4 6-3. Stakovsky will now challenge Viktor Troicki of Serbia in the second round.

Topics: Fernando Verdasco, John Isner, Stanislas Wawrinka, Tomas Berdych