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4/4/08 10:53 PM | Jonathan Morgan
Tomas Berdych may have been playing spectacular tennis, but Nadal was able to again defeat a former headache of a player.
In a month that can be renamed “Nadal getting even month”, he has now scored his 4th revenge win over an opponent he struggled with in the past. Tsonga, Blake, Blake again, and now Berdych.
In the first set, Nadal did what he did against Blake in the previous round, which is to step up in the court and put pressure on the opponent's serve instead of hanging arounf and returning serve in another time zone. By doing this, not only did he put pressure on the Berdych 2nd serve, but also put pressure on Tomas to get more first serves in. He only served at 49% and Nadal was able to break him to serve for the set at 5-3.
On Nadal's service games, he hit an astounding 72% of first serves but more importantly directed it very well. After he hit a fine first serve he would be able to take control of the point with his first forehand.
After Berdych broke back, and saved 2 set points, he took it to a tiebreak. Nadal has 6-3, but a few dumb shots took it to 6-6. Berdych served at 6-7 in the tiebreak and hit a double fault. This was way more than just one point as Tomas seemed to give up in the second set. Along with that, Nadal's 2nd set stats were absolutely off the charts. He hit no unforced errors in that 2nd set, lost just one point on his own serve, and won the last 12 points of the match.
A combination of the two were enough to do Berdych in. Nadal will now play in his 2nd Miami final, the first being in 2005 where he lost a 5 set heartbreaker to Federer.
Otherworldy play from Nadal in that second set and he seems to be playing on hard courts the best he ever has.
Tough luck for Berdych for his run to end the way it did, and that 2nd set performance was disgraceful.
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Did you know that... Benjamin Becker was given the ATP-tour's rookie of the year award in 2006.
RickyDimon, Dec 3, 2008 5:21 AM
posmatrac, Dec 3, 2008 4:30 AM
Navratilovastillplay, Dec 3, 2008 12:32 AM
tennisgirl, Dec 1, 2008 11:48 PM
lendl, Dec 1, 2008 6:17 PM
Navratilovastillplay, Dec 3, 2008 1:32 AM
Casper, Dec 2, 2008 8:23 PM
Casper, Dec 2, 2008 8:02 PM
Tomas Berdych
Rafael Nadal
Sony Ericsson Open
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Revenge is sweet. I would love to see another favorite of mine, Nickolay in the finals against Rafa :o) Vamos Rafa!
RafaNadalGirl20 , 4/4/08 11:24 PM