Rafael Nadal has defeated Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic in the semi final round of the ongoing Western and Southern Open. Nadal won the match in the straight sets by 7-5, 7-6(4).
Now, Nadal is only one win away from winning his 9th title of the season. If he does that by defeating the local lad John Isner in the final, he will move up to no. 2 in the world rankings.
Talking to the reporters after securing win over Berdych, Nadal said, “It was another fantastic day for me. I was just a little bit tentative on my serve, but, I think I did well overall.”
This was the 18th match between these two players and Nadal defeated Berdych for the 15th time.
Both the players started decently in the first set. There were no serve breaks in the first 10 games and the scorecard was showing 5-5 when the 10th game ended.
Nadal gave his opponent the first blow in the 11th game to get up by 6-5. In the next game, he was serving for the set and he didn’t miss out. With some tremendous forehand shots, he held his serve in style and clinched the opener.
In the second set, the first 5 games went with the serve and at the end of the 5th game; the score was 3-2 in the favour of Berdych.
The Czech player got a breakthrough in the 6th game to enhance his lead to 4-2, but, he couldn’t consolidate on that serve break. He dropped his serve in the very next game and his lead got decreased to 3-4. Nadal served out the 8th game to level the scores.
Both the players held their serve in the next 4 games and the set went into the tie breaker.
In the tie breaker, Berdych was clearly nervous. He played some horrible shots and ended up losing it to get knocked out of the competition.