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Djokovic Survives Berdych Attack For 70th Win In 2011
By: Lauren Lynch
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Photo Credit: Andy Kentla
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(November 21, 2011) Not a single top-four player has won their match unscathed at the 2011 Barclay ATP World Tour Finals first round-robin face-off and Novak Djokovic was no exception. The World No. 1 had to make every point count against Tomas Berdych, pushing their match to two hours, 39 minutes with a final score of 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(3).
This was the Serbian’s eighth win over the Czech, who he was met four times this year. It is his 70th win of only four losses in 2011 and mental victory in his match Monday after a tough match.
Several times during the match, the crowd was pulling for the Czech over the 2008 champion by particularly the Spanish fans, who are hoping their top-player Rafael Nadal does not have to meet him in the final rounds since he has not beaten Djokovic once this year.
The World No. 7 started off the first set serving and preceded to win the second game on Djokovic’s serve, on which he pounces on leaving the Serb to net the ball. Again, Berdych stole the first-ranked player’s serve at 0-4 being helped by some double faults and another ball hit to the net. Finally, Djokovic gets a break at 1-4 but is not able to permeate the Czech’s game again in the set that Berdych finishes with a well-placed wide serve.
The second set went in favor of the World No. 1, who broke early at 2-0 with a dropshot and careless errors made by Berdych. Both hold for the remainder of the set and in better form Djokovic wins it with an ace down the middle and three set points.
For the final set, things got tighter when the 26-year-old Czech decided not to give up and breaks at 2-4 with a forehand winner that went down the line. The 24-year-old responded with a break back because of Berdych’s two double faults and unforced errors.
Soon the match went into a tiebreaker because of the players fighting so hard to defend their serves. Djokovic dominates the tie-break and gets to a match point at 5-1 but again the Czech was not ready to go down without a fight and forces the four-time Grand Slam champion to wait until 7-3 to win the match on three match points and sigh of relief.
The under-dog’s efforts will not go to waste as the rest of the draw rejoices with the forced exhaustion on the Serb, who has dominated in 2011, and could still put him in the semifinals depending on the next two matches. Djokovic had 33 winners(four aces) and 17 errors(three double faults) to Beryches 42 winners(six aces) and 32 errors(four double faults).
Djokovic only won five more points at 98 of 191 total points and lost 38 total points on his serve. Both split three breaks a-piece. He descibed the match as the hardest he has played since the US Open final.
Djokovic said, "Was the toughest match probably since the US Open. I mean, I wasn't very satisfied with my performance tonight. I know I wasn't playing on top of my game. But, look, you know, a win is a win in the end. And I knew that my opponent tonight is unpredictable player who has a powerful groundstrokes and great serve. If he's on, you know, if he feels the ball well, it's difficult to, you know, compete with him. That's what happened. I think he made pressure, a lot of pressure, on my serve, especially the second serve. He was stepping in. I went back. I was too passive."
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