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Tennis: Berdych powers into the Open quarters for seventh time
MELBOURNE, Jan 22, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Tomas Berdych powered past Fabio
Fognini in straight sets to advance to the quarter-finals of the Australian
Open on Monday for a seventh time.
The Czech, seeded 19 and a two-time semi-finalist in Melbourne, downed the
25th seeded Italian 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 in 2hr 8min on Margaret Court Arena and
will face either Roger Federer or Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics in the last
eight.
It will be his seventh quarter-final in his 15th Australian Open appearance
and opens up the possibility of a 26th encounter with Federer.
“I like your optimism,” Berdych smiled when asked on court about the
prospect of facing the Swiss ace yet again.
“What to say? How many times is it going to be? So let’s see who’s going to
win. I have no choice to choose the opponent and may the better man win,”
Berdych said.
“I am going to get myself ready, it’s all I can do, and prepare the best I
can. So far I think I’ve done pretty well, I’m feeling good, healthy, so I
feel I am on the best base line I can be.”
Federer leads the big-serving Czech 19-6 in their matches going back to
2004 at the Athens Olympics.
Berdych was in little trouble against the maverick Fognini, breaking the
Italian’s serve six times, hitting 37 winners and offset with 20 unforced
errors.
“He’s a very tough opponent, you especially have to stay very focused from
the first point to the last because you never know what’s going to come up,”
Berdych said.
“He can always come up from the back of the court with amazing shots and
turn the match around so being focused was the best thing I could have done
today.”
Berdych went into the match holding the record for the most number of
Australian Open round of 16 appearances by a Czech man with 10 ahead of Ivan
Lendl’s eight.
He improved his record to 44-14 at the Australian Open, representing his
most successful major tournament in terms of matches won and quarter-finals
reached.
Berdych has reached the semi-finals twice in Melbourne, losing to Stan
Wawrinka in 2014 and against Andy Murray the following year.
BSS/AFP/MR/ 1044 hrs