Andy Roddick produced one of the finest performances of his career Friday to rally from a set down and upset Rafael Nadal in the semi-finals of the Sony Ericsson Open.Roddick turned the match on its head in an eight-point stretch late in the second set and rode the momentum to a 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory over the two-time Sony Ericsson Open finalist Nadal, who showed very rare signs of frustration as the match slipped away.
In a master class serving performance, Roddick fired 15 aces and won 47 of 55 points on his first serve to claim his first win in his past four meetings with Nadal.
Early in the match, playing from deep behind the baseline, Roddick was unable to put Nadal under pressure. But a change in mindset midway through the second set to go on the attack reaped rich rewards for Roddick, who cracked a series of brutal forehands and made regular, confident forays to the net, winning 15 of 25 approaches.
“Anytime we got neutral [in the point] he was pushing me around,” Roddick said. “I knew I had to be more aggressive. My heavy forehand doesn’t work against him, so I had to hit it flatter, which is higher risk... I took really, really ridiculous cuts at a lot of forehands. They found the purple part [of the court].”
Czech Tomas Berdych continued his giant-killing run at the Sony Ericsson Open Friday night, powering his way into the final with a 6-2, 6-2 win over fifth seed Robin Soderling. Berdych, who took out top seed Roger Federer after saving a match point in the fourth round and 10th seed Fernando Verdasco in the quarter-finals, will face sixth seed Andy Roddick in the final.
Berdych had lost his past three meetings (and five of the past six) against the heavy-hitting Soderling and knew that he needed to execute a different game plan tonight. “In all my matches with Robin in the past I’ve been too defensive… if you give him time to hit the ball hard it’s really tough,” Berdych said. “I wanted to play more aggressive, but without making mistakes.”
Berdych, who reached the Sony Ericsson Open semi-finals last year, will be appearing in just his second ATP World Tour Masters 1000 final and is seeking his second title at this level, five years after he won Paris in 2005. The former World No. 9 boasts a 17-6 record on the year. He trails Roddick 2-5 in head-to-head meetings.
Friday, 2 April 2010
Singles - Semifinals
[6] A Roddick (USA) d [4] R Nadal (ESP) 46 63 63
[16] T Berdych (CZE) d [5] R Soderling (SWE) 62 62
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