Berdych ready for Nadal after winTomas Berdych steeled himself for the challenge of facing World No1 Rafael Nadal after seeing off Marcos Baghdatis in the Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi.Berdych fought back on Thursday after losing the second set to the Cypriot to clinch the third and take the game 6-3 3-6 7-5.
And far from being overawed by Nadal who he meets in today’s second semi-final, Berdych believes it is the best way to begin the new season.
He said: “It’s a perfect start to the season. This was Marcos’ first match, he is ranked 20th and I wanted to play really, nice long match.
“My second match is against the no1 player in the world. It’s a nice start.
“I will try my best. He is the best player and I just need to try and find some pretty good game from me to beat him.”
Berdych was erratic during the match, missing out on a couple of match points after winning the first set relatively comfortably.
He earned the crucial break in the fourth game of the match and kept the lead going to wrap the first set.
He was then tested a couple of times by Baghdatis, who came back hard in the second set.
Baghdatis was broken early in the second in the third game but the Cypriot improved his shot-making to earn breaks in the sixth and eighth game to clinch the set.
The third went down to the wire before Berdych held his nerve to win it 7-5.
Berdych was coasting after breaking Baghdatis in the sixth game and taking a 5-2 lead.
But some suspect shot-play by the Czech allowed Baghdatis back into the match.
He tied the set at 5-5 with an ace, before hitting a drop shot into the net to give Berdych a 6-5 lead before wrapping up the final game.
Berdych said: “I think it was a pretty good match, we both played pretty well. I think I can talk for Marcus as well. It was really close match.
“It was a mistake from me that I lost my serve and lost the set.
“I think it was little bit tough with the conditions there. It’s quite tough to manage and that time Marcus did it better. But finally I did well to win the third set.”
Berdych claimed that although he was ahead in the rankings of Baghdatis, during the match it’s a different situation.
“It’s a little bit different when you playing against Marcus. If you look at the rankings it looks like I’m the favourite. I should be the one to win the match.
“It’s not like that on the court. We are in different position in the match. It’s like against Rafa and Roger.”
For his part, Baghdatis was happy with his performance after playing his first match after a break of nearly two months.
The Cypriot hopes 2011 can be an injury-free campaign as he looks to improve on his world ranking and finally enjoy some consistency on the court.
Baghdatis said: “I had the shoulder injury and could not have finished the year how I wanted to.
“So it’s not easier to come after the break and play against a top player. He was playing very well in the beginning. I felt good to win the second set. I’m happy with the way I’m playing. I moved well in the court. Now I will sit with my coach and check out things I did well and things I did bad and improve on it. That’s the way I look at it.”
http://www.sport360.com/tennis/news/12081-berdych-ready-for-nadal-after-win