By Chris Oddo | Monday, November 10, 2014
Stan Wawrinka hammered Tomas Berdych in straight sets to begin his second ATP World Tour Finals campaign with a flourish.
Photo Source: Clive Brunskill/Getyy
With games at a premium at the ATP World Tour Finals, Tomas Berdych could barely manage points in the early going of his lopsided to defeat to Stan Wawrinka in round-robin play.
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Five points in the opening five games was all the Czech could muster, and things didn’t improve much from there as the 2014 Australian Open champion steamrolled Berdych, 6-1, 6-1 to move to the top of the Group A standings on Monday in London.
Wawrinka dropped only five points on serve all afternoon, and won 19 of 24 against Berdych’s second offering to take and maintain control of the lopsided affair. In the end, Wawrinka claimed a whopping 67 percent of the points.
“I wasn’t expecting it to be that easy,” said Wawrinka, who wins just his second match in his last five events.
Wawrinka’s 58-minute rout of Berdych puts an end—at least temporarily—to the worry about the Swiss No. 2’s readiness for this month’s Davis Cup final against France. For Wawrinka, who has struggled to find his form since the US Open, the victory serves as a reminder that Wawrinka has the game to ruffle the feathers of the ATP’s elite—when he can produce it.
The world No. 4 improved his tour-best record against the ATP’s top ten in 2014 to an impressive 7-1.
"I think I showed from the beginning of the year, already from last year, that my level is there," Wawrinka added, according to Courtney Nguyen of SI.com. "When I feel good on the court, I'm ready to beat everybody."
Berdych, meanwhile, has now lost his opening round-robin match in each of his five appearances at the year-end championships. But there is a silver lining: He has rebounded after the previous four to win his next match.
Still, the former ATP World Tour Finals semifinalist admits he has dug himself a rather large hole in only producing two games against Wawrinka.
"I'm in the worst possible situation that I can ever be [in]," he told reporters after the match.
Notes, Numbers, Tweets
Wawrinka’s 6-1, 6-1 victory marks the first time that a player has needed 14 or less games to win at the ATP World Tour Finals since 2007 when David Ferrer defeated Richard Gasquet, 6-1, 6-1 in Shanghai.
The 14 games is also the fewest that Wawrinka has ever needed in 35 career top ten victories.