Tomas Berdych downs Nicolas Mahut to secure a place in the final four – Open Sud de France 2012
Top seed, Tomas Berdych, proved his class after dumping the local veteran, Nicolas Mahut, in straight sets at the Open Sud de France 2012 on Friday. He formulated a 6-3, 6-4 victory over the world number 78 to secure a place into the semi-finals at this
ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 250 series event taking place on the indoor hard courts in Montpellier, France.
Czech number one unveiled his true colours at this match and after breaking Mahut’s serve three times, he bagged the match in 73-minutes. He improved to a 3-0 FedEx ATP Head2Head record against the local star and assertively advanced into the last four at
the Arena Montpellier.
"So far everything’s going pretty well," the delighted Czech told the reporters after his match. "I have a second match under my belt. The very important thing in my game is serve. It was working pretty well, [except] for one game where I lost maybe a bit
of concentration and lost that game, but finally was able to finish it in straight sets, so happy for that."
Ranked 7th in the South African Airways ATP World Rankings, Berdych, confidently entered the French hard courts and held his opening serve to nil. Through stunning serves from his arsenal of skills, he prevailed throughout the set. The Czech then
earned the breakthrough in the sixth game and subsequently registering a 6-3 success.
The 26-year-old lost his track in the following set and gifted away his serve in the second game, eventually going 3-0 down. However, he made a fitting reply and went on a five games killing spree before the French could hold on. Berdych then held his serve
once more and clinched the set with a 6-4 score line.
Berdych received bye from the opening round at this hard court event. He then started his campaign with an incredible 6-0, 6-2 win over a local qualifier, Florent Serra, in his second round match to reach this spot. The Czech is in awesome form as he cruised
past his rivals at the Hopman Cup and led his country to glory. Apart from losing his both matches at the Kooyong ATP Exhibition event, Berdych made a quarter-final showing at the Australian Open (lost to world number two, Rafael Nadal) before entering this
tournament.
Next in queue for the top-10 star is the seventh seeded German, Philipp Kohlschreiber, who stunned the local seed, Richard Gasquet, in a mouth-watering three setter to set-up this clash.