After Positive Wimbledon, Berdych Looks Ahead

About two months ago, Tomas Berdych was in a far different place from where he stands today.

The 30-year-old Czech had just lost 6-0, 6-0 to David Goffin in Rome. The third-round defeat was Berdych’s first double-bagel loss in his hundreds of Futures, ATP Challenger and ATP World Tour matches. Berdych split with his coach and entered Roland Garros without any outside help. How he’d fare the remainder of the clay-court season and for the entire grass-court stretch was entirely up to Berdych, and the tour veteran has gone on to post some of his best runs at Grand Slam championships.

Berdych reached the quarter-finals at Roland Garros for just the third time in 13 appearances. On Friday, he fell to second seed Andy Murray in the Wimbledon semi-finals. His All-England Club run marked his best showing there since he had reached the final in 2010.

“Right now, of course, it’s a bit of frustration,” Berdych said after the loss. “But overall, I think it was a good run. I think it was a good two weeks [that] definitely show me that’s the way to do it, that’s the way to go. That’s really positive signs for my second half of the year.”

Prior to Friday, Berdych had spent the most time on court out of any of the final four men at Wimbledon. The 6’5” right-hander had played 19 sets that lasted 13 hours and 19 minutes. To compare, Murray had played 17 sets and spent 11 hours and 11 minutes on court. Berdych’s fourth-round match against countryman Jiri Vesely spanned two days and lasted three hours and 56 minutes, with Berdych winning 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(8), 6-7(9), 6-3.

But, despite all that time on court, Berdych said he felt refreshed for his semi-final contest.

“I was really ready for the match. It was all fine in terms of rhythm, in terms of time to rest and everything. It was difficult in the days before,” Berdych said. “Just before the semis, I got the day off. I got back in rhythm of how it is normally. So everything in that sense was fine. I was feeling good on the court.”

Murray, who won almost 80 per cent of his first-serve points, was just too good, Berdych said.

“He played really well. He was able to defend the game, really play very solid,” Berdych said. “For him, he just deserves to win.”