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BNP PARIBAS MASTERS 2014 - SATURDAY 1 NOVEMBER IP: 46.218.233.162 Posted on November 1, 2014 at 10:46:29 PM by David Barnes
BNP PARIBAS MASTERS
SATURDAY 1 NOVEMBER 2014
It's often hard to find something positive to say about Tomas Berdych's big-hitting 'boom boom' style of play (although Mike Dickson managed it in his Daily Mail column today when he spoke of the Czech's "easy power off both flanks"), and this afternoon was no exception, as he squared up to the geometrically-jawed Milos Raonic for a place in tomorrow's final. With both players by now sure of a place in the London line-up, this contest was never going to have the extra edge that a semi-final here deserves, and it proved a largely turgid affair. Berdych's first serves were around the 200kmh mark, those of his opponent around 220kmh, so there was a parity of sorts in that department, but the Czech was able to read a surprising number of Raonic's, so that the Canadian's total of aces for the match, over three sets, stood at a mere twelve, compared with 22, in just two sets, that he hammered down against Roger Federer yesterday.
Raonic took the first set 6-3, winning an impressive 94% of points on his (successful) first serves. Yet he managed only four aces, and just two more in the second set, where Berdych (champion here in 2005, two years after Tim Henman) out-aced him with three and outplayed him for 6-3, to tie the match after an hour and a half of tedium. The light show organised before the players took to the court had more going for it, in terms of drama, than did the tennis once they'd started playing; the statuesque (Raonic) slugging it out against the burlesque (Berdych) with little to choose between them.
In the third set, Berdych, trailing 5-6, played an awful service game, with a double fault at 15-all offering a window of opportunity to the suddenly more sprightly Canadian. The Czech pushed his forehand long to give Raonic two match points, and then put a sloppy backhand into the net to hand him the match. Berdych promptly smashed his racket (what do the rules say about post-match excesses of this kind, I wonder?) and looked annoyed with himself. If one didn't know him better, one might fantasise about an element of match-throwing, since his reaction seemed a tad staged, the outburst a little uncharacteristic.
The attempt to inject some drama into proceedings had come late in the day. Berdych admitted afterwards; "I just totally messed it up with the last game". Then he lapsed into a couple of those tortured phrases that leave you scratching around for any discernible meaning, and wanting to offer your services as an English teacher for a few weeks in the off-season; "It's a really guy [Raonic] that we all need to watch for the future. It was a close match, which always makes, you know, the final picture of the whole situation a bit different".
It was left to the defending champion, Novak Djokovic, to provide the relentless quality in depth that the first semi-final had rather lacked. He stormed through the first set against Kei Nishikori in little more than half an hour, taking it 6-2 with a sustained display of power, subtlety, and supremely focused shotmaking, splaying the ball from side to side with unnerving accuracy, and forcing error after error from a somewhat hapless Nishikori. In the second set the Japanese player double-faulted to give Djokovic a 3-1 lead, and, although he had to save a break point (Nishikori's first of the match) at 4-2, Djokovic was all but home and dry. Leading 5-3 on serve, he threw in two aces for good measure, then came to the net on the final point, forcing Nishikori to make an ambitious lob which fell just long. Eight aces, no double faults, average first serve speed 193kmh, twenty winners, among other highlights, had secured the victory in just 62 minutes.
Djokovic has won all his three previous encounters (one in 2013, two this year) against Milos Raonic, and for all the Canadian's improvement this season - and this week - you would be brave to bet against the defending champion in tomorrow's final.
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