Novak Djokovic vs Tomas Berdych Preview – ATP World Tour Finals 2014 RR
The final of the Group A round robin matches will feature a rematch of the lopsided China Open final between Novak Djokovic and Tomas Berdych. Their last indoor meeting was a disaster for Berdych and he will be faced with a similar task when he meets the inspired Djokovic again in 2014. Djokovic leads the Head to Head series 15-2 and will be looking to extend his indoor record.
Djokovic continued his winning ways at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals with a remarkably dominant showing against Stan Wawrinka on Wednesday afternoon. The Serbian star dispatched his Swiss adversary 6-3, 6-0 in 6 minutes to cement himself atop the Group A standings.
“I definitely didn’t expect it, but hoped that I can play this way again and the match result can go this way for me,” said Djokovic. “Obviously Stan wasn’t feeling his best today, made a lot of unforced errors and had a low percentage of first serves in. On my side, I just played very solid from all over the court. I think I covered the court very well, got a lot of balls back, mixed up the pace, got him off the comfort zone. That’s something that was part of my game plan.”
With his latest victory, Djokovic is now one win away from clinching the year-end No. 1 ranking. He also extended his indoor winning streak to 29 matches and has now managed two bagel sets against Top 10 players in the last month – one of which he will meet again here in London.
In a surprising statistic, Tomas Berdych maintained his undefeated record in second round robin matches at the WTF with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over reigning US Open champion Marin Cilic. Following his 6-1, 6-1 loss to Wawrinka in his opening match, this was a big step forward for the Czech No. 1.
“I felt much better on the court,” said Berdych. “But still it was not one of my best. That’s fair to say. But I think that’s the beauty of this event. One day you can be swept out from the court like I did and in two days’ time you can come up and you can play a different tennis.
This marks the 18th time that Djokovic and Berdych will meet on the professional tour, with the top seed holding a dominant 15-2 record against his adversary. Last month Djokovic demolished Berdych 6-2, 6-0 in the China Open final to hand the Czech his most embarrassing victory ever. While Berdych will likely find his way on the scoreboard this time around, he will be hard-pressed to penetrate the aura and confidence of Djokovic at this stage of the tournament.
Prediction: Novak Djokovic in Straight Sets