Tomas Berdych continued his Australian Open campaign with a 6-4 6-0 6-3 win over Bosnian Mirza Basic. Berdych continued right where he left off in the first round, winning in straight sets in both of his matches so far.
Berdych Battles Through First Set
The first set saw excellent serving and was very close until the end. Both players began the match holding their serves up until the ninth game of the first set. At 4-4, Berdych held to take the set to 5-4. Berdych then got the pivotal break, taking the set 6-4, courtesy of a Basic forehand error.
Berdych Romps Basic In Second Set
After a very competitive first set, the second could not have been any less. Berdych absolutely rolled through the second set, never losing a point off of his serve. The Czech put together an excellent performance in the second set, taking it 6-0, closing the set out courtesy of a Basic double fault, summing up the theme of the set.
Berdych Finishes It Off In The Third
A similar story to the first, both players began the set holding serve to get the score line to 4-3. Then in a lengthy deuce game on Basic's serve, the Czech was able to get the pivotal break, going up a break to get to 5-3. The Czech then closed out the match in typical Berdych fashion with an emphatic ace to finish the match.
Berdych By The Numbers
Berdych appears to be continuing his fine form from Doha to Melbourne, continuing his successful start to 2016. Berdych made the semis in Doha before losing out to world number one Novak Djokovic in the Qatar capital, in straight sets.
Berdych, a semifinalist here in Melbourne the last two years, has arguably had his best slam results down under, making multiple semi and quarterfinals in the Australian capital. Berdych snapped his 18-match losing streak to Rafael Nadal here last year in the quarterfinals. Berdych is looking to make his second career Slam final here, the other coming at Wimbledon in 2010, losing out to Nadal in that final.
Berdych served extremely well today not facing a single break point, throughout the entire match. Berdych was very effective when he got his first serve in, winning 95 percent of first serve points. Even off the second serve, the Czech still was able to win 60 percent of second serve points. The Czech put together a perfect blend of power and aggression hitting 43 winners to only 20 unforced errors throughout the match. Berdych played very well and looks poised to make another deep run in Melbourne.
Next Up For Berdych
Next up for the sixth-seeded Czech will be either 29th-seeded Australian Nick Krygios or Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas. Krygios and Cuevas will play the night session match tonight on Hisense Arena. Berdych and Krygios have never played and Berdych and Cuevas played once, last year in Beijing, which was a straight sets win for the Uruguayan. Should Kyrgios advance, the Aussie crowd will be rocking, trying to back their man for an upset.