Tomáš Berdych

Born: September 17, 1985 in Valašské Meziříčí (Zlínský kraj in Czechoslovakia)
Height: 1.96 m
Plays: Right-handed (double-handed backhand)

Stan Wawrinka achieved more or less what I expected from Berdych. Quite revealing is their Australian Open 2014 semifinal: Wawrinka beat Berdych in a tight four-setter (6-3, 6-7, 7-6, 7-6), winning just one more point in the entire contest. Then he outplayed an injured Rafael Nadal in the final and later collected two more major titles. Would Berdych have done the same if he had been more lucky in the tie-breaks against the Swiss? In my opinion, the Czech had all the ingredients not only to win a few majors, but also to become No. 1 in the world at some point in his career.
At the end of 2005, when Roger Federer and Nadal had already established themselves as tennis kings for the years to come, Berdych triumphed in Paris-Bercy, having defeated only top players – so it seemed that a bright future was ahead of him: big serve, effortless flat and quick strokes off both wings, good volley technique, cool under pressure (after the US Open ’06 he held a stunning 9:0 record in five-setters). At the time he had already defeated both Federer and Nadal after tight matches (in Athens ’04 and Cincinnati ’05 respectively), as well as the third-best player of the mid-00s, Andy Roddick, in Tokyo ’08.
It’s really difficult to explain what happened to him in the next few years that he didn’t become at least a solid Top 5 player, multiple Masters 1K champion. The place which “should have been” his was taken by Novak Đoković and Andy Murray in the late 00s – even though Berdych was also able to defeat them after dramatic matches (Paris ’11, Rome ’13), as well as at Slams in straight-set contests.
He needed to play a lot to finally reach his first (and only) major final – Wimbledon 2010. In that final he easily lost an ugly match to Nadal. The Spaniard and the Serb turned out to be Berdych’s nightmarish opponents: he finished his career with two terrible H2H records: 4-20 (from 3:1!) and 3-25 respectively against them (barely avoided a double bagel in Beijing ’14). His inability to defeat Nadal and Đoković for many years is the main explanation why he didn’t win another Masters 1000 title (three finals: Miami ’10, Madrid ’12, Monte Carlo ’15) or reach another major final (five semifinals after Wimbledon ’10 – two of them lost to Murray in copycat semifinals: US Open ’12 and Australian Open ’15).
I’ve got two ideas why Berdych couldn’t manage it despite remaining a super consistent Top 10 player over seven years:
I. As a well-established Top 10 player, he reinvented himself as a “second Björn Borg” – always trying to be cool, no matter how badly things were going. In my opinion, he needed to show much more emotion to engage fully in psychological battles against guys like Nadal and Đoković.
II. Over the years in Davis Cup ties, Berdych was very successful in doubles, especially alongside Radek Štěpánek. What’s really interesting is that Berdych collected an impressive 21-2 record, playing serve-and-volley on a regular basis. It’s beyond me why he didn’t use this attacking mindset more often in singles during big matches.
By the way, in 2013 Berdych, partnering Lukáš Rosol (b. 1985), won the longest doubles match in history: the Czechs defeated Wawrinka/Marco Chiudinelli 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-7, 24-22 after 7 hours and 1 minute!
If I have to point out the biggest underachiever among the best players born in the 80s, I have no doubts – it’s Berdych. Admittedly, he made up for many disappointments with back-to-back Davis Cup titles (2012-13), but he couldn’t be truly fulfilled, because he didn’t win a clincher in those finals. He was even a slight favorite to beat David Ferrer in front of the home crowd on a fast indoor court… and lost in straights, the same the following year that time being an underdog though.
Trivia: from the beginning of his career to the end of 2014, he always played with a baseball cap – regardless of whether it was indoors or outdoors, and no matter the length of his hair (which was very long in his early years on tour). He ended his career in 2019 but announced his intent to perform at the Tokyo Olympics ’20. It was not granted to him due to the cancellation of the event by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Career record: 640-342 [ 330 events ]
Career titles: 13
Highest ranking: No. 4
Best GS results:
Australian Open (semifinal 2014-15; quarterfinal 2011-13, ’16)
Roland Garros (semifinal 2010; quarterfinal 2014, ’16)
Wimbledon (final 2010; semifinal 2016-17; quarterfinal 2007, ’13)
US Open (semifinal 2012; quarterfinal 2014)
Davis Cup champion 2012-13
(in both editions he contributed more than Štěpánek, but in both finals Berdych lost rubbers that
could have given Czechia the trophy)