Rafael Nadal’s Sony Open Run Will End in Semifinals vs. Tomas Berdych

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at Internationaled.org

Published: March 28, 2014

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After barely surviving a tough quarterfinal encounter against Milos Raonic, Rafael Nadal will finally meet his match in a semifinal Sony Open clash with the underrated Tomas Berdych.

Nadal was dominant in Sony Open wins over Fabio Fognini and Denis Istomin, but he looked like a much different player when the competition level was ratcheted up. Raonic's big serve gave Nadal issues on the hard court in Miami, and Berdych happens to be a hard-court maven in his own right.

While Rafa was able to pull out a win over Raonic in three sets, it marked the first time that he had ever dropped a set to the young Canadian, according to Tennis View Magazine:



Nadal has been dominant over the course of his career against Berdych, but he showed some chinks in the armor on Thursday against Raonic.

Berdych, on the other hand, has yet to lose a set in Miami. He was impressive in wins over both John Isner and Alexandr Dolgopolov, and he is displaying a skill set that could give Nadal fits.

If there were any questions about Berdych's serve, he answered them against Isner in the fourth round, when the Czech star outperformed one of the best servers in the world, as seen in this graphic courtesy of Tennis TV:



Provided Berdych can maintain a high-level serve against Nadal, it's possible that the favored Spaniard will struggle to keep pace.

Nadal is the No. 1 seed, while Berdych is just No. 7, but it can be argued that Berdych has had almost as good of a year as Rafa to this point.

In addition to a title at the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in the Netherlands, Berdych boasts some impressive individual victories this season against the likes of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and David Ferrer.

He reached the Australian Open semifinals, losing to eventual champion Stanislas Wawrinka in four sets. Three of those sets went to a tiebreaker, so it's fair to say that Berdych i...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Tennis

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