Berdych Overcomes Early Pressure To Reach Quarter-finals

Tomas Berdych reached the quarter-finals of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships on Wednesday with a 7-5 6-1 victory over Tobias Kamke.

The number three seed had to overcome an early onslaught from Kamke, fighting off two break points to hold serve for 1-0 and another two to hold for 2-1. Then, despite breaking to lead 4-2, he dropped his own serve in the next game.

Berdych broke serve again to lead 5-3 but he failed to serve out the set, and he also was unable to win two set points on his opponent’s serve at 5-4. Eventually, at 6-5, he took the set on his sixth set point.

The second set began the same way as the first with Berdych having to save two break points, and after taking a 2-0 lead he had to hold off a further break point to hold for 3-0 before finally coasting to victory.

"I was struggling a bit with the conditions, because it’s still kind of my first days here," said Berdych, who contested the Marseilles final on Sunday. "Even though I had a match yesterday it was yesterday night, and always the night matches help, you know, when you come and transition from indoors to outdoors.

"It was quite tough for me but I’m able to manage it in two sets, which is good. Yeah, another day behind me. Looking forward to the next one."

Russian eighth seed and two-time former finalist Mikhail Youzhny, after struggling in his opening match, was beaten 6-4 6-4 by qualifier Daniel Brands.

The German held seven break points in the opening set but broke just once to lead 5-4 with the aid of two double faults, and Brands broke again with his third break point of the second set to lead 1-0.

Although Youzhny levelled at 2-2 he dropped his serve again in the following game and Brands went on to claim the match by dropping just three points in his last three service games.

Nikolay Davydenko followed up his win over sixth seed Janko Tipsarevic by beating Victor Hanescu 6-4 7-6 (7-2).

Later on Wednesday, defending champion and second seed Roger Federer plays Marcel Granollers, and world number one and top seed Novak Djokovic tackles Roberto Bautista Agut.

The Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, which continues until 2nd March, is owned and organised by Dubai Duty Free and held under the patronage of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

For further information about tickets, prices and the tournament phone the call centre on +971 4 4172415.

Emirate:  Dubai

Date: Feb 27, 2013

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