By Ryan Behrendorff | Tuesday, January 16, 2018
Alex De Minaur has played inspired tennis this month, but Tomas Berdych was imposing in their Australian Open clash.
Berdych blasted through 12 of the last 13 games defeating the Australian wild card, 6-3, 3-6, 6-0, 6-1 to cruise into the Australian Open second round.
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The 19th-seeded Czech improved to 8-0 against Australians at Grand Slam level, ending De Minaur’s breakthrough summer which saw him beat six top 50 players.
Twice a semifinalist at Melbourne Park, Berdych was simply too powerful for De Minaur and looked impenetrable for much of the contest.
Berdych burst out to a 5-2 lead and won the opening set 6-3 in 27 minutes, showing his all-court game with quality serving, brilliant net play and clean groundstroke winners, while only tallying seven unforced errors.
De Minaur stepped it up in the second set, displaying his tremendous return game to go with some effective inside out forehands which got Berdych on the run. The young Aussie raced to a 3-0 lead, and although he dropped serve midway through the set, he recovered well to take it 6-3 and level the match.
But Berdych proved how experienced he was at this level as he steamrolled his younger opponent 6-1, 6-0 in the third and fourth sets to book his spot in the second round.
"I saw him play the first two weeks of the year and I have to say, for his age, pretty impressive," Berdych said. "I mean if I see myself and compare to him, [I was] nowhere near so it was not an easy one to see him first round, so I just get myself together and bring quite good tennis. I was very glad I could comeback to this great arena and I think it was a good match."
De Minaur has spent a lot of time on court in the past two weeks with deep runs in Brisbane and Sydney, and it seemed to take a toll on him throughout the match.
The 18-year-old showed a fighting spirit reminiscent of his mentor Lleyton Hewitt, who watched the match alongside Aussie legend Tony Roche from the front row. Despite being restricted by an abdominal injury in the latter stages of the match, Di Minaur kept battling.
"It's a young guy coming up, he's hungry, he's moving great and big fighter," Berdych said. "So you have to be ready, you have to be prepared and I think I was quite well."
Berdych, who advanced to the second round for the 14th time in 15 Melbourne Park appearances, is set to face Spain’s Guillermo Garcia-Lopez on Thursday.
"I remember I think we played one very special final once in China. It was a very, very special match," Berdych said. "It's the conditions I like. It's gonna be quite hot on Thursday so let's see who that's going to suit better and I'm looking forward to that."
Tennis Now contributing writer Ryan Behrendorff is in Melbourne covering the Australian Open. For more of Ryan's reports please follow him on Twitter @RyanBehrendorff.