Abu Dhabi: World No 6 Tomas Berdych battled past Cypriot's Marcos Baghdatis 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 to set up a mouth-watering clash with world No 1 and defending champion Rafael Nadal in the Mubadala World Tennis Championship semifinal today.
Berdych, who plays in the second semi-final at the Abu Dhabi International tennis Complex at the Zayed Sports City, gets the chance to avenge this year's Wimbledon final defeat to Nadal.
The Czech was, however, stretched the distance by the 20th seed though his loss in the second set was more due some errors by the Wimbledon finalist.
Settling into form quickly Berdych broke Baghdatis in the ninth game and then went on to wrap the first set 6-3 in a little over 40 minutes.
The two players were level 2-2 in their four career meetings and Baghdatis, coming back after a nearly two-month break due to injury, began to move well on court and caused a few problems for his Czech rival. He broke Berdych in the fourth game and then held on to take the set 6-3 and force the decider.
Perfect start
But Berdych broke Baghdatis' serve in the eighth game only to be broken by the Cypriot in the very next game.
However, after both held serves, Baghdatis saved two match points on his serve in the 13th game before a double fault gave Berdych the chance to go on and break him and seal a place in today's semi-final.
"It is just the perfect start of the year (season). To start by playing matches like this one and then the next day to play the No 1 player in the world," said Berdych, looking ahead to his semifinal opponent. "Of course, I had one more match after the Wimbledon final and I lost it to. So someday I hope I can do that. I am looking forward and I will try my best," he said.
Commenting on his second-set loss to Baghdatis, he said: "It is a bit difficult on court with the sun on one side, takes some time to adjust to conditions here. But it was a good match."
Baghdatis expressed satisfaction over his display and said: "This is my first match in two months and to play a top player is not easy. But I am pretty happy with my performance, playing good tennis, moving well on court. There were some moments in the match that I played well."
The Cypriot, who now goes to Brisbane to start the new season, said: " There are a few strong points and a few weak points that I will discuss with my coach over today's game. I will be working more on my serve. Will have to improve on that if I have to play rivals at this level," he added.
