By Alberto Amalfi | Wednesday, February 25, 2015
Tomas Berdych won 13 of 17 points played on his serve in the final set to dispatch Simone Bolelli and reach the Dubai quarterfinals.
Photo credit: Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships
Tomas Berdych realized a milestone in the desert.
Enduring two sets of turbulence, Berdych defeated Simone Bolelli, 7-6 (7), 5-7, 6-0 to register his 500th career victory and reach his fifth consecutive Dubai quarterfinal.
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Berdych became the eighth active man to score at least 500 career wins on the ATP World Tour. The 29-year-old Berdych joins compatriots Ivan Lendl (1,071) and Tomas Smid (517) as the third Czech man in the Open era to realize the milestone.
Bolelli partnered Fabio Fognini to win the Australian Open doubles title earlier this month and used his forehand to inflict damage in the opening set.
Targeting Berdych's forehand return, Bolelli drew an error off that wing to earn the first set point at 6-5 in the tiebreaker. Berdych hit an inside-out forehand winner to deny it before spinning a body serve into the hip to earn a set point of his own.
The 52nd-ranked Italian saved it with a serve winner out wide only to steer a backhand down the line wide to face another set point. Berdych hit an aggressive second serve into the Italian's weaker wing and Bolelli ballooned a backhand return deep to drop serve. He punctuated the transgression hurling his racquet at his court-side seat after dropping a set that was well within his grasp.
Serving at 5-6, Berdych felt the scoreboard pressure and engaged in a brief tiff with chair umpire
fh was called wide, he challenged and replay showed ball touched the line, Mohamad Lahyani. A Berdych forehand down the line was called wide, he challenged and Hawk-Eye showed the shot touched the line. Lahyani ruled a replay of the point, which prompted a protest from Berdych, who argued he should have won the point outright.
"There's no way... I don't see a clear explanation," Berdych said, arguing that earlier in the match a similar call went against him.
"You can look at both incidents on TV," Lahyani replied, saying the out call came before Bolelli had hit the ball.
When play resumed a tight Berdych double faulted off the tape — his first double fault of the match — to hand his opponent two set points.
Bolelli leaned into a forehand winner down the line to earn the first break of the match and seize the second set after one hour, 53 minutes of play.
That was the Italian's last stand.
Berdych blasted through the decider, winning 13 of 17 points played on his serve and breaking three times.
The fourth-seeded Czech will play Sergiy Stakhovsky for s spot in the semifinals. Berdych has beaten Stakhovsky in all three of their previous encounters, including a 6-2, 6-1 thrashing in the 2014 Dubai round of 16.