1 Response to cincy05berdych_nadal

1. Voo de Mar says:

   August 13, 2025 at 4:38 pm

   Points won by each set: | 42-46, 31-20, 50-46 |
   Points won directly behind the serve:
   26 % Berdych – 33 of 124
   19 % Nadal – 22 of 111

   Night session, the second of 24 meetings between them when they both were teenagers (Berdych almost 20), and the most dramatic one across 14 years of their rivalry. Despite a big gap between them in the ATP ranking [2 vs 36], Berdych didn’t affraid his slightly younger opponent because quite recently they had met in the Bastad final, and the Czech easily took the opener, so the logical conclusion was that if he won so many rallies against Nadal on clay, on hardcourt it’d be easier to win them with the help of his powerful serve. In the opener Berdych led 6:5* (30/0), but lost the set after a 4/7 tie-break. Before the 12th game quite unusual situation occurred as they both needed a medical time-out and trainers to massage their thighs! In the 2nd set Nadal led 40/0 on serve at 2-all when Berdych’s FH return landed on the baseline to give him a winner. Out of nowhere the Czech won that game converting his break point with a dead net-cord (BH winner), and collected five straight games in total. The 3rd set was crazy in its progress and featured a few mistakes of lines people (still a few months before the Hawk-Eye introduction). Berdych bravely fought off five mini-match points at 3:4, then he broke to lead 5:4 and took another MTO which threw him off track; he began the 10th game committing two casual errors. Nadal broke back and had three match points at 6:5 – Berdych erased them all serving very well (two service winners, one off the second serve 173 kph, and a forehand winner inside-out which landed on the sideline). In the deciding tie-break Nadal committed two double faults (all his six came in the decider) and lost it 3/7 not being able to respond to Berdych’s another flat and fast forehand. The Spaniard was running out of gas because two days before he had won his first hardcourt title in the Canadian Open. In 2013 Nadal would win those two events within two weeks, but in the meantime the draw was reduced from 64 to 56 players which meant winning five instead of six matches to get the title was required, and a three-day break between the final in Canada and the first match (regarding Top 8 seeds) in Cincinnati.

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