China Seems to Be Lucky For The Czech Tennis Ace Tomas Berdych: Wins The Shenzhen Open

Tomas Berdych the defending champion retained his Shenzhen Open title after he defeated Richard Gasquet in the finals which were played on Sunday. The set scores were 7-6(5), 6-7(2), 6-3. This is Berdych’s 15^th encounter with this French tennis ace.

After this win, Berdych is just 330 points behind Rafael Nadal in the Emirates ATP Race to London Rankings. This also happens to be the Czech’s ATP World Tour title of the season.

In the year-to-date standings, Berdych is currently ranked in the ninth position.

He does not have happy memories of this year’s US open from where he had to exit because of an attack of appendicitis. However, with his strong determination the Czech regained his formed quickly and reached the semifinals of the St. Petersburg last week where he lost to Alexander Zverev.

After winning the Shenzhen Open Berdych who is brimming with confidence said that his recent setback in the US Open because of illness didn’t deter him from staging a comeback. He said that his journey from the hospital to winning the Shenzhen Open proves his point.

Before this, the Czech’s last victory was at the IFStockholm Open which was almost one year ago. The Asian subcontinent provided four of Berdych’s titles (2008 Tokyo, 2011 Beijing, 2015-16 Shenzhen).

Berdych has also won in his fourth all-30 and over final on the ATP World Tour this season. Berdych defeated Gasquet in the FedEx ATP Head2Head series and clinched the title. He wrapped up this match in two hours 45 minutes. Berdych has also got the distinction of being the 18^th 30-and-over winner on the ATP World Tour this season. In the game with Gasquet, the French player broke the serve of the Czech in the first game of the match. However, immediately after this, Berdych fought back to level the scores. The set ended with a tie with Berdych winning it eventually. The second set saw a sea saw of fortunes between the Czech and the Frenchman with the Frenchman eventually winning the set and thus taking the match to a final decider.

In the deciding set, Berdych regained the lost momentum and served hard to win the match.

Berdych considered this a very hard fought match with a very little margin for error on both sides. The Czech said that after the semi-finals he wanted to raise the level of his game and thinks that he was successful in his aim. He was very happy to have defeated a tough opponent. Berdych expressed his satisfaction for having played the way he did.