Dubai: Third seed and last year’s finalist Tomas Berdych joined wild card Malek Jaziri of Tunisia in the quarter-finals of the Dubai Duty Free Men’s Open on Wednesday.
Berdych, the losing finalist to Novak Djokovic last year, brushed aside Sergiy Stakhovsky from Ukraine 6-2, 6-1 in less than an hour to set up a mouth-watering match with Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
World number 10 Tsonga was the first player through to the quarter-finals following the withdrawal of Russian Nikolay Davydenko due to a rib injury.
Berdych smoothly wrapped the first set in just 28 minutes with breaks of serve in the second, sixth and eighth games countered by one from the Ukrainian in the fifth.
Stakhovsky tried his best to stay in the match, but his Czech opponent was simply too strong in all departments of the game.
Berdych clinched the second set and match in just 57 minutes, the Czech taking his record for the season to 13 wins from 14 matches starting with the Australian Open in January.
“I am feeling very good and I am glad I could keep my high level. It was a solid win, and I am working a little more on my return stats than on my service stats,” Berdych said.
“These days it’s important and it’s the main focus really for the next days to get my percentage of the first serve back and really find a nice and sweet rhythm for my serve,” he added.
“Sergiy is a very tough and tricky opponent. Every single point is different: slices, with spin, short balls, deep balls. Really, everything is so varied. It’s nothing that I really like.”
Earlier, Tunisia’s Jaziri became only the second Arab player after Moroccan Younus El Aynaoui to advance to the last-eight stage of the event with a clinical 6-3, 7-5 win over Indian wild card Somdev Devvarman.
Jaziri was the first to break his opponent’s serve, going 2-1 up in the third game before saving three game points to hold serve and make it 3-1. Jaziri broke a second time in the ninth game to take the first set 6-3 in 35 minutes.
The second set was a closer affair, with Devvarman breaking early only to see the Tunisian respond strongly. Devvarman broke a second time, but Jaziri was up to the task as he broke back in the eighth for 4-4 and then held for 5-4. One final break was enough for the Arab world’s best player to cement his place in the quarter-finals, where he will meet German Philipp Kohlschreiber on Thursday.
