Tomas Berdych booked the final spot in the men’s singles quarterfinal lineup at Wimbledon by winning a darkness-delayed five-setter against fellow Czech Jiri Vesely on Tuesday. Berdych recovered from a brutal fourth set to roll through the decider and bag a 4-6, 6-3, 7-6(8), 6-7(10), 6-3 victory that lasted a total of three hours and 55 minutes over two days.
The 10th seed had an incredible number of opportunities to finish this one off in four sets on Monday. He served for the match at 5-3 in the fourth and went up 0-40, triple match point on Vesely’s serve at 5-6 but could not convert.
A wild tiebreaker saw Vesely surge to a 6-1 advantage, with quintuple set point in his pocket. But the underdog squandered the entirety of his lead and eventually faced more match points at 6-7 and 8-9. Berdych appeared to have clinched victory when a Vesely shot was called long and it was so dark outside that Hawkeye no longer functioned, but chair umpire Mohamed Lahyani overruled it (correctly, as replay showed) and the point had to be replayed. When it was all said and done, at least for the day, Vesely saved both match points in the ‘breaker and forced a fifth when his opponent netted a backhand at 10-9.
Darkness finally halted play and Berdych quickly regained control when the two compatriots came back out on Tuesday. The world No. 9 gave back an early break, but a double-fault by Vesely on break point at 3-3 proved to be the underdog’s undoing. Berdych broke again at 5-3 to cap things off in style.
“It was a very close match, definitely,” Vesely commented. “Yesterday I played a very good first set, then second set I lost my serve once. The whole match yesterday was very, very close; could finish either for him or for me. As I said, it was very, very close.
“But today I didn’t start well. I lost my serve (in the first game). I was a little bit nervous from the beginning on. But then still I had my chances to get the lead (for) 4‑3, which I didn’t use. [After that] he was the better one.”
“The important was that I was able to erase [what happened in the fourth set] from my mind very quickly, get a good night’s sleep, and come back strong again to finish the last set,” Berdych explained. “That’s what I did. I think that’s all the experience that I already have. That’s what really gets me through this. It was really not the situation that I would like to have, but that sometimes happens.”
Up next for the 2010 Wimbledon runner-up is surprising quarterfinalist Lucas Pouille. The other three final-eight showdowns on Wednesday are Roger Federer vs. Marin Cilic, Andy Murray vs. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, and Milos Raonic vs. Sam Querrey.
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