Novak Djokovic is three wins away from his first title at Roland Garros. With the top half of the draw depleted by Rafael Nadal’s injury-induced exit, Djokovic can be expected to coast through two more rounds–starting with Tomas Berdych on Thursday.
One of the most lopsided “rivalries” in all of tennis will add another chapter when Novak Djokovic and Tomas Berdych meet again–for the 26th time–during quarterfinal action on Thursday at the French Open.
Djokovic is dominating the head-to-head series 23-2, including 10-0 in their last 10 encounters, and he has won four in a row in straight sets. On the bright side of Berdych, he is a more respectable 1-2 against Djokovic on clay and none of their showdowns on this surface has ended in straight sets.
But that is just about where the good news ends for the eighth-ranked Czech, and not simply because of his overall futility against the world No 1. Berdych’s form had been infamously woeful heading into Roland Garros, punctuated by a double-bagel loss to David Goffin in Rome that led to the firing of coach Dani Vallverdu. A sudden recovery of form combined with a favorable draw has led to a relatively surprising quarterfinal appearance for Berdych. He punched his ticket to the last eight by beating Vasek Pospisil, Malek Jaziri, a cooled-off Pablo Cuevas, and a slumping David Ferrer.
Djokovic has gotten past Yen-Hsun Lu, Steve Darcis, Aljaz Bedene, and Roberto Bautista Agut, surrendering just one set to Bautista Agut along the way. Although the top-seeded Serb failed to lift the winner’s trophy in either Monte-Carlo or Rome, he got the job done in Madrid and he is looking like an obvious favorite for his first French Open title with Rafael Nadal out, Roger Federer sidelined, and both Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka having required five-setters.
For many reasons, there is no reason to think Berdych will be the one to stop Djokovic’s current quest in Paris.
Pick:Â Djokovic in 3
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Berdy could take a set but I’ll go with Nole to continue his dominance over the Czech with a convincing straight sets win.
Berd looked the best I’ve seen him in months against Ferrer, but he won’t get a set off of Joker.
Novak is not in a good form. Not the same as 2015.
Berdych will win, for sure
Berdy won’t take a set…it will be over before you know it…
That means you are assuming djokovic will significantly raise his level… He won’t win RG unless he does that…. Berdych CAN win a set today..
no, I just think Berdy turns into mental midget when playing Nole…Nole does not need to be outstanding out there…and if Nole is focused to take one break in each set it will soon be over…and that is what I expect will happen…
definitely
Hahhahahahahahh
“Berdych will win, for sure”… I wouldn’t bet on it…
Brilliant, not. Why have RG chosen to wait till 1.0pm (local time) to start play?
Rain is forecast to arrive at that time. There are strong winds today so they may get lucky and the rain could be blown over quickly or even miss them. But why run the risk of more delays.
http://www.lachainemeteo.com/meteo-france/destination/previsions-meteo-roland-garros-42-0.php.
exactly what i thought when i saw the schedule last night ed. given that they are already behind why not start early if anything??
bet there are some very angry players out there. given the flak thrown out by halep and aga you would think they would get with it but no way.
the players ought to get together and voice their opinion in no uncertain terms.
Novak is on his way for the title…the stars aligned for him this year and he does not really need to play all that well to win the title…he will lift the trophy no doubt about it…
seeing Murray struggling with Gasquet yesterday made me think how he won’t stand a chance against Novak in the finals…Stan does not play sufficiently well to beat Andy let alone Novak…
yeah but the weather and useless scheduling by rg may end up determining the outcome. what if nole/thiem/goffin end up playing their semi the day before. when either andy or stan gets a day off?? if the match goes long then it would not only impact but potentially determine the outcome of the final. nole gets in real rages when the scheduling is out and the weather is bad and that makes him play badly as he tries to get things done way too fast. so he could be out for hours. how would he win the next day??
i agree with you that andy wasn’t convincing against richard. he was nearly down 2 sets to love and would have definitely been so against a better player.
it’s very very windy out there. is that going to upset nole?? we know he doesn’t like playing in the wind.
Not windy enough and Berdy is a bit of his pace.
Off not of
The Byrd is more at ease in the wind – pun intended
nole breaks!! what a ros winner!!!
have to say that i can’t warm to berdy..in fact my feelings about him are rather close to kim sear’s…
Djokovic gets the first break.
it’s so depressing to see the empty stands…almost as two outsiders playing a first round match at the 250 tourney…
RG fiasco in its entirety!
Don’t forget it’s the guillotine of the French lunch hour.
The French don’t deserve the French Open anymore.
Move it to a place that respects tennis.
The boorish rude behaviour of the French crowd is indefensible.
#EmptySeats
Know what you mean. He can be a prick at times but I often find myself rooting for him for some reason.
They were selling seats on line for the main courts earlier today and my son-in-law treated my daughter to a seat on Chartrier.
awesome. Should have chosen Lenglen though!
That’s the truth haha.
She couldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth. She would have preferred to be watching Thiem.
Can sense the urgency in Djkovic’s play today…
what weapons he possesses vr….that ros!!!
Berdy is not going to break the H2H record playing like this. Also I suspect ND has been playing his bluffing game in the earlier rounds to give his prospective opponents a false sense of confidence.
Or maybe, just maybe:
1. He feels like he can conserve form and energy by not going 100 percent in earlier rounds.
2. He doesn’t have the same sense of urgency against lesser opponents.
3. The conditions today are more in his favour.
this ?
Masterful performance. Thank you Nole.
Let’s go!
Yup excellent stuff. Our boy is looking good.
Mikkers gets it.
Playing in the mud evens the playing field.
This happened in RG ’12 final when Rafa had the match under the control. It started raining HARD and all of a sudden Nole reeled off eight straight games against Rafa as the ball became soggy and heavy.
Once it was finally rain delayed, Rafa came back the next day to right the course and win the title.
if we are comparing levels of play then nole is playing better in his quarter final than either andy or stan.
also he is looking calm today. maybe the last match has got the gremlins out of his system..
Appears to have, amy!
incredible balance off both wings. cat and mouse out there. looking like the world number one.
yup!
Djokovic marches on relentlessly.
Berdych should fire himself, not his coach. I hope he drops out of top ten soon. He’s truly one dimensional,no plan B. For all his power, he is still being pushed around and gets pushed further and further away from the baseline. He cant even steps in to take control of his service games.
It reflects badly on the atp tour that a top ten player was badly bageled by a younger non top ten player. I hope Thiem and Goffin both make the top ten this year.
RT @AnnaK_4ever: According to ATP stats, today Berdych can tie Edberg in most Top-10 losses ever.
Edberg’s W/L is 96-114, Berdych currently stands at 49-113.
RT @BenRothenberg: And Ferrer is at 52-109. Underrated in this “Golden Era” is how also-rans have also remained firmly in place. #RG16
which is why Gasquet has won all his titles at 250 events.
And Ferrer has only one masters to his name beating an inexperienced Jerzy in Paris.
Note how quickly Djokovic left the court when it started to rain heavily leaving a frustrated Berdych arguing vehemently with the umpire.
It was Djoker who pressured the umpire to stop the match and the crowd were not happy. Frew said that would have reversed some of the progress he’s made to get tennis fans to like him.
And with a few drop shots, lobs and angled shots to the line that skidded off the court, Nole showed Tomas exactly why they needed to get off. Well played champ.
On a side note, he needs to stop that thing he does after matches. As much as I love the guy, that is completely unnecessary and unnatural. Go back to tearing shirts, I’d love that.
Much prefer shirt-ripping.
Agreed.
Darth Djoko is better.
He was exploiting the power of his ranking. It was a very short downpour – they could’ve waited it out on court but he didn’t even sit down, just marched off. Not that it was going to make any difference to the outcome.
He raised his level today…Thiem will push him harder
Soooo glad we won’t have GOffin vs Novak
Ben Rothenberg
‏@BenRothenberg
Novak Djokovic did not appreciate being asked about his near-DQ with the racket fling today. #RG16
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cj85s1fXAAELsAj.jpg
Nole does it again:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cj86Ng6WUAEb8a6.jpg
#GettinForcedWidit
Thiem is going to beat Novak, wait and see
Oh I don’t know about that!
Goffin ain’t Novak!
But I do understand the desire for it to happen.
I thought it would be a good match between Thiem and Goffin. It sounds like it was.
In the states the network is televising the matches. That’s why the tennis channel didn’t show it. Their coverage won’t even start for another half hour.
Are we really supposed to watch tape delayed matches in 2016?
Novak seemed to have a pretty easy time with Berdy.
The semis are where players are expected to raise their level of play.
I am looking forward to it.
Asking for a lot Shireling. Very inexperienced vs someone with loads of exp
A set at best. Unless Nole completely chokes.
Nole in straights most likely but they should be entertaining.
He’s totally going to beat Novak 🙂
i hate the charade he goes through with a ballboy at the end of the RG matches. An improvement on the chest beating, shirt ripping and grass-eating rituals but embarrassing to watch.
^It’s not like Nadal has incredibly classy celebrations either. Djokovic is okay for the most part. As long as a player isn’t pulling BS during a match, it’s more than fair game for him to react the way he wants to, so long as it doesn’t directly cause a loss or injury to someone.
Nadal more classy than Djoko for sure! What’s with Djoko almost hitting a linejudge after he hit his racket on the ground? He’s fortunate it didnt turn into that Nalby incidence at Queen’s club one year.
Not to mention Fed breaking racquets many times, something Rafa has NEVER done…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9X48FqmoJI
… and throwing them…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S98CKjjWbdg
How many times????
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhG0YjbIrTo
#NoClass
For one thing, Rafa is not the subject of this discussion! I don’t know why he has to be brought into it.
What about when Novak bounced his racket in anger and it flew up into the stands? If a spectator had been hit, then he would have defaulted the match.
You would never see Rafa do anything like that no matter how upset he was.
yup, blind fedfan doesn’t get it.
“Rafa” became the subject of this discussion because a Nadal fan doesn’t get to preach on class, when it isn’t displayed by their favorito, ok? Cheers. 🙂
according to a no class fedfan (just like fed) lol.
Go back to work fedfan. You’re too busy to troll here, remember?
Unless its another of your many “public holidays” again. 🙂 🙂
Nadal? What does he have to do with it?
Oh forgot, Rafa has to do with EVERYTHING for poor fedfans. Such an inferiority complex.
At least Rafa is consistent as opposed to Fed and his little waves as if he’s the Queen of England (unless he’s losing to Delpo when he screams at the fedfan RG crowd to shut up after his adoring fans thought he’d won the point).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxuGb0C0lY0
#WheresRafa
https://youtu.be/rxuGb0C0lY0
I used the Nadal example because the poster in question, to my knowledge, is a Nadal fan. In any case, good on you for admitting Nadal is consistently classless.
No. It is because fedfans are obsessed by Roger’s Daddy ironically, much more than Roger himself (once he realized that Rafa was simply better and there was nothing he could do about it).
fedfan, classless as fed breaking racquets and screaming at his adoring RG fans to shut up.
You’re having a meltdown man. Calm down.
I got nothing better to do according to you remember?
Your the one who’s supposedly too busy with his multiple displays for multi tasking.
I’m surprised you find time at all to troll ed and others here.
Really all you ever show up here to do, isn’t it?
Go for a walk, get out from your screens, it will do you some good.
The chest beating shirt ripping and grass eating are fine because they are natural. This one is a PR exercise to the core, which is my problem with them. As for classy, who cares? Class is a fictional concept propagated by snobbish elites that has nothing to do with the real world. I’d like to see some “class” sycophants thrown in a life threatening situation to see how they cope.
+1
Eurosport are flogging cheap entry to Susan Lenglan for the rest of today. So if you fancy watching the Seniors fooling around now is your chance.
Ben Rothenberg ‏@BenRothenberg 1h1 hour ago Paris, France
“I mean, if he would hit the ball boy [sic] it would be over.” -Tomas Berdych, who knows his rulebook. #RG16
Carole Bouchard
‏@carole_bouchard
Berdych clarifies:it’s not Djokovic who asked for the game to stop,it’s officials. Tomas said it’s one of the worst decisions he’s ever seen
Lol!
So much being ranted about Djokovic just for showing that he is human!
Not about Nole.
More about how easily he could have been DQ’d but then again…
“I mean, if he would hit the ball boy, it would be over,” Berdych said of Djokovic. “If not, then it’s just a broken racket. That’s it. Simple warning. Simple as that.”
In fact, a default would not be automatic.
“There are no automatic defaults,” said Stefan Fransson, the French Open tournament referee. “The decision is made based on each different situation.”
(such as whether you are one of the Big 4 maybe, hey Gulbis?)
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/03/sports/tennis/novak-djokovic-dominic-thiem-french-open.html?smid=tw-nytsports&smtyp=cur&_r=0
“Thiem, seeded 13th, is coached by Gunter Bresnik, an Austrian who once worked with Boris Becker, the three-time Wimbledon champion.
With Becker now part of Djokovic’s coaching team, it will be mentor against pupil in Friday’s semifinal.”
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cj85s1fXAAELsAj.jpg
Djoker’s luck has to run out one day.