By Chris Oddo / Friday, November 8, 2013
Rafael Nadal was strong down the stretch, edging out Tomas Berdych in three sets, 6-4, 1-6, 6-3, on Friday in London.
Photo Source: AP
Most of the time Rafael Nadal takes the simple path to victory against Tomas Berdych, but on Friday an inspired push by the World No. 5 forced Nadal to take the circuitous route.
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No matter, Nadal took care of business in the end, notching a late service break to down Berdych, 6-4, 1-6, 6-3, for his 17th victory in 20 career tilts with the 28-year-old Czech. The victory propels Nadal to top-seed status in his group, and knocks Berdych out of contention for the semifinals.
It also enabled Stan Wawrinka to reach the semis, as Berdych's loss opened the door for Wawrinka, who defeated David Ferrer earlier in the day. Wawrinka was so thrilled that he tweeted a thank-you to Nadal after the match, telling him that his next dinner is on him.
Nadal will probably take Wawrinka up on the offer, but not before he tends to some unfinished business in London. He has never won the prestigious year-end event, but in this the best hard-court campaign of his career, the chances may never be better.
Nadal has won 16 straight against Berdych dating back to 2007, but the Czech did manage to end Nadal's run of eleven consecutive sets against him by playing an aggressive, high-risk second set in which he hit out with abandon from the forehand side, in addition to cracking six aces and losing only five points on his serve in the set.
Berdych's hot streak coincided with a Nadal lull, and the Czech was able to race out to a 5-0 lead before Nadal dug his feet back in and started to mount his push.
In the final set, Berdych stayed hot, and kept relying on his heavy, flat forehand early in rallies to win points, but Nadal stayed with him, and started to throw in a few hay-making forehands of his own just to give Berdych a little something to think about as he moved closer to what would have been a very big upset.
After rallying back from 0-30 in the seventh game, Nadal held serve one point after blasting a message-sending inside-out forehand that went for a clean winner at 30-all.
In the next game, the pressure proved to be too much for Berdych. He tossed in a double fault at 0-15, then another on game point, and all that was left for Nadal to do was to serve it out. After double-faulting on triple-match point, Nadal hit the shot of the day on match point, rifling a backhand passing shot past an onrushing Berdych to seal the victory in one hour and fifty minutes.
Nadal improves his record to 74-6 on the season with the victory, and the 13-time Grand Slam champion will face the winner of Roger Federer and Juan Martin del Potro's round-robin match tomorrow in Sunday's semifinal.
Wawrinka will face Novak Djokovic in the semifinals in another highly anticipated battle. The pair have already contested two epic matches in 2013, with Djokovic edging Wawrinka in a memorable round-of-16 clash at the Australian Open and in a crowd-pleasing U.S. Open semifinal, each in five sets.
Djokovic is currently on a 19-match winning streak and he is the defending and two-time champion at the World Tour Finals.
Nadal has gone 35-3 on hard courts, including a stretch of 27 consecutive wins on the surface that saw him win the U.S. Open final in four sets against Djokovic.