The long awaited semifinal between Tomas Berdych and Tommy Robredo was pushed forward to Sunday as rain at Shenzhen washed out all play. Once the first seed and the third seed were finally able to battle it out for a spot in the final, it was the Czech number one who capitalized and ran away with the victory in just over an hour.
Berdych takes first set
Berdych was on point with his service games in the initial set as he hit 63 percent first serves in and lost only one point on his first serve. He backed this up with some solid game play off the ground, especially on his return games as he won ten out of sixteen of the points that Robredo served. He was able to break the Robredo serve twice in the set and consolidate without facing a single break point opportunity on his own serve, taking the set easily 6-1.
The Czech wins tighter set
The story was not the same in the second set as Robredo raised his intensity to match the Czech's abilities. This time, it was Robredo who had four crucial break point opportunities in the set, but he was unable to convert any of them. Robredo was now serving his first serves at 70 percent, but just not managing to clinch the important points.
After fifty-six minutes of play, as Berdych was serving at deuce at 3-3, the players were taken off for yet another rain delay, but play shortly resumed and Berdych was finally able to capitalize by breaking Robredo and winning the set 6-4. The key factor here was Berdych being able to control the tough moments; even he only converted one out of his two break point opportunities, but saving the four break points on his own serve became the crucial factor from letting Robredo make a comeback in the match.
The number one seed will face Guillermo García-López in a Monday final. The two's head to head is three wins apiece, so we can expect an exciting match up. However, both players have cause to worry due to the match being pushed forward as they both will have to rush to Beijing shortly after for their next tournament.