Tomas Berdych will be aiming to make it to his second US Open quarter-finals in a row when he takes on Richard Gasquet on Monday.
Seeded sixth in the competition, Berdych came back from the verge of going two sets down to Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in his fourth round match before coming back to win 6-7(2), 7-6(7), 6-3, 6-3. Needing three hours and 22 minutes to seal his fourth round berth for the fourth successive year, Berdych had a total of 53 winners and he won six of his 14 break-points against Garcia-Lopez.
Speaking of his previous victory that had come after Berdych defeated Bjorn Fratangelo and Jurgen Melzer in straight sets in the first two rounds, the Czech world number six said: "I felt good all the way through. The first set wasn't the best. I had a set point and had my chances, but wasn't able to make it. He played quite well and unfortunately didn't happen to win the first set. Then, it was a close second set and I was on top of him and playing well. It was a matter of time to take my chances and that's what I did."
Gasquet had no such worries in his win over Bernard Tomic, his third round opponent. He defeated the Australian in straight sets, winning 6-4, 6-3, 6-1 after the first two rounds hadn't gone exactly in the manner he wanted.
The French 12th seed needed five sets against Thanasi Kokkinakis in his opening round match, before being stretched to four by Robin Haase in his second round encounter to make it to the third.
Interestingly, Berdych and Gasquet go a long way. They have faced each other 12 times over the last 10 years and the fact that both players have won six matches each shows how closely-matched they have been all this while.
By 2014, in fact, Gasquet had taken a 6-3 lead over Berdych but the Czech came back to win their last three encounters in a row to make it 6-6. On hard court surfaces, nothing separates them again, with both players having won four times apiece. They have already played each other twice this year - at Doha and at the Madrid Masters - and both times, Berdych recorded a straight-set win against Gasquet.
Tomas Berdych and Richard Gasquet are scheduled on court from 5.30 am local/10.30 pm BST.
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét