Roddick to face Berdych for Miami title

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

Berdych tops Verdasco for spot in semis

Tomas Berdych backed up his marathon fourth-round win over Roger Federer with a grueling three-set victory over Fernando Verdasco Thursday to reach the Sony Ericsson Open semi-finals for the second time in three years.

Two weeks ago in Indian Wells Berdych clipped Verdasco 6-0, 6-3 but today was a much different story. Berdych needed to win a second-set tie-break just to stay alive and ultimately needed 2 hrs., 51 mins. to edge the Spaniard 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-4 in a bruising encounter.

On Saturday the Czech will play Robin Soderling, who defeated Mikhail Youzhny 6-1, 6-4 in the other quarter-final on Thursday. This is Berdych's second semi-final of 2010, having reached the last four in Brisbane in the first week of the season.

“It was a great match, definitely," said Berdych, who saved seven of nine break points - just as Verdasco did - and who won just one more point than his opponent. "The beginning for me was a little bit slow, because I was still feeling a little bit tired after the long, long match against Roger, finishing that late in the night."


Thursday, 1 April 2010

Singles - Quarter-finals
[5] R Soderling (SWE) d [13] M Youzhny (RUS) 61 64
[16] T Berdych (CZE) d [10] F Verdasco (ESP) 46 76(5) 64

Nadal beats countryman Ferrer in straight sets; Federer ousted in Miami

Rafael Nadal won a grinding two-hour battle with fellow Spaniard David Ferrer Tuesday to reach the Sony Ericsson Open quarter-finals as his comeback continues to gather momentum.

After a dour struggle in the first set in which both players traded heavy blows from the baseline, Nadal looked headed for a routine win when he raced to a 3-0 lead in the second. But Ferrer continued to attack and pushed Nadal all the way before the six-time Grand Slam champion triumphed 7-6(5), 6-4 in 1 hr., 57 mins.

Nadal is playing just his fourth tournament of the season, but already boasts an impressive 15-3 mark on the year. At Indian Wells two weeks ago, in his first outing since retiring in the Australian Open quarter-finals with a right knee injury, Nadal reached the semi-finals and won the doubles title.

Nadal next meets powerful Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, against whom he owns a 4-1 lead in their head-to-head series. But Tsonga enjoyed a convincing win over Nadal in the 2008 Australian Open semi-finals. The winner of the Nadal-Tsonga match will play the winner of the Andy Roddick-Nicolas Almagro quarter-final.

Czech Tomas Berdych saved a match point in a pulsating third-set tie-break to snap an eight-match losing streak against Roger Federer and send the top seed crashing out of the Sony Ericsson Open Tuesday night.

In a riveting 2 hr., 51 min. contest that finished at 12.15 a.m. a record Tuesday night session crowd of 12,804 fans frequently broke into a chorus of ‘Roger, Roger’ to cheer on Federer, who had been within two points of defeat in the second set.

But, just as he had lost in a third-set tie-break after holding three match points against Marcos Baghdatis in his last outing in Indian Wells, the support of fans was not enough to spare Federer the same fate in Miami.

Federer had the match on his racquet at 6-5 in the deciding tie-break, but Berdych responded with two massive forehands – the shot that had troubled the Swiss all night – to set up his first match point, which he converted when Federer hit his 61st and final unforced error, sending a forehand long.


Tuesday, 30 March 2010

Singles - Fourth Round
[16] T Berdych (CZE) d. [1] R Federer (SUI) 64 67(3) 76(6)
[4] R Nadal (ESP) d. [15] D Ferrer (ESP) 76(5) 64
[5] R Soderling (SWE) d. [9] F Gonzalez (CHI) 60 67(3) 62
[6] A Roddick (USA) d. B Becker (GER) 76(4) 63
[10] F Verdasco (ESP) d. [7] M Cilic (CRO) 64 76(3)
[8] J Tsonga (FRA) d. [12] J Ferrero (ESP) 62 62
[13] M Youzhny (RUS) d. M Fish (USA) 61 10 ret. (back)
[33] N Almagro (ESP) d. [27] T Bellucci (BRA) 64 36 76(3)

Federer survives Serra challenge; Cilic gets 20th win of the year in Miami

Normally one of the most ruthless ‘closers’ in the game, top seed Roger Federer won on points instead of delivering a knockout blow to Frenchman Florent Serra in the Sony Ericsson Open third round Monday.

Federer suffered lapses when seemingly in control of both sets. He was broken when serving for the first set at 5-3 and ultimately needed a tie-break to close out the set. Then, leading 4-1 with a double break in the second, Federer was broken when he was cruising to victory.

He fell behind 0-30 in his next service game but steadied, only to lose his following service game when trying to close out the match at 5-4. Again he was taken to a tie-break, which he won routinely to clinch a 7-6(2), 7-6(3) win.

“Sure, I still have to tidy up my game a bit, having had one break up in the first and two breaks up in the second; it's normally something that doesn't get away from me. But I thought he came up with some good stuff, and that made it difficult for me to close it out… I don't think I gave it to him. I think he went to get it, which is a big difference.

“The most important [thing] is to come through the rounds. So I don't have a preference how it's done. I always like to come out with confidence, that's for sure. So it's nice to having won two breakers, because that doesn't happen every match you play.”

Seventh seed Marin Cilic claimed his 20th match win of the year with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis on Monday at the Sony Ericsson Open, an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament in Miami.

Both players dropped just four points on their first serve and little separated them from the ground, but the Croatian did not offer up a break point and converted the two opportunities he had on Baghdatis’ serve.

Baghdatis was looking to upset a Top 10 player for a second consecutive tournament after defeating World No. 1 Roger Federer two weeks ago in Indian Wells.

Cilic next faces 10th-seeded Spaniard Fernando Verdasco, who rallied past Austrian Jurgen Melzer 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-1. Melzer failed to capitalize on his five break point opportunities in the second set, allowing Verdasco to come back and claim the victory in just over two hours.


Monday, 29 March 2010

Singles - Third Round
[1] R Federer (SUI) d F Serra (FRA) 76(2) 76(3)
[5] R Soderling (SWE) d P Petzschner (GER) 61 62
[7] M Cilic (CRO) d [25] M Baghdatis (CYP) 63 64
[9] F Gonzalez (CHI) d [22] J Monaco (ARG) 67(4) 64 62
[10] F Verdasco (ESP) d [23] J Melzer (AUT) 36 76(4) 61
[13] M Youzhny (RUS) d [19] S Wawrinka (SUI) 16 76(5) 75
[16] T Berdych (CZE) d H Zeballos (ARG) 64 75
M Fish (USA) d [29] F Lopez (ESP) 75 63

Serbia edges over USA to reach Davis Cup quarters

Serbia and USA had a close encounter with each rubber having to count. Serbia won the first 2 rubbers with Troicki and Djokovic winning them. The American team didn't have Roddick on their team and suffered a scare when Mike Bryan got food poisoning and couldn't compete in the doubles with brother Bob Bryan so Bob had to play with John Isner instead. They did win the doubles but Djokovic stopped the USA hopes by winning a tight five-setter against John Isner and then Sam Querrey won the dead rubber against Troicki.

Russia also had a close match against India with no Davydenko or Safin on their team and so Youzhny and Kunitsyn had to step in instead. They did win their singles rubbers but were beaten in the doubles to make the tie 3-2 to Russia. Argentina also had a memorable win against Sweden with the out-of-injury David Nalbandian helping them get it by winning their doubles rubber and the last singles rubber to take them to the quarters as well with a score of 3-2.