Grand Slam success may end up eluding Berdych forever

The first match that comes to my mind where he lost despite being in a very strong position was during the fourth round of the Australian Open 2009 in which he was up against Roger Federer. He had everything going for him in the first two sets and was very much in control in the third set too. It was then out of nowhere that the Swiss Maestro came out of his shell and pocketed the next three sets to win the match. While Federer can be hailed for the way he fought back from the brink, it has to be said that the man who played the longest doubles match in history just recently, saw his game fading away from him suddenly, which was the most important reason behind his loss. His booming first serves chose to elude him and his ground strokes deserted him just when he required them the most.

Same way, when the “Bird man” vanquished the world No.1 Novak Djokovic in the quarterfinal at Rome a couple of weeks ago after having found himself trailing 2-5 in the second set, the commentators were seen applauding him for the fight back. They showered encomiums on him, saying he had beaten the best player on the planet by staging a spirited come back. The Czech was impressive that day as he gave no chance for the Serb to come back once he got the early break at the beginning of the third set. He was firing aces and un-returnable serves at his opponent consistently and deservedly reached the semifinal. Though it would require nothing short of a herculean task for anyone to prevail over Nadal on clay, the least we expected from the 6ft 5 inch tall ATP professional was a respectable show. But nothing great happened that day as the world no.6 Czech merely surrendered to the clay court game of the Spaniard. His game came a cropper against his semifinal opponent and he just could not do anything right on that day. If only he had served as well as he did against Novak the other day, he would have at least won a set. But, sadly he became yet another victim to the clay court artistry of Rafael Nadal, losing the match in straight sets 6-3 6-4.

His failures in quarters and semis may well be attributed to his consistent absence from big matches, resulted mainly due to so many early exits, especially in Grand Slams. Though his game has always been very solid when it comes to performing on the big stage, his inexperience has often let him down against multiple slam winners. There was a time when he had scored three back to back victories over Rafael Nadal and that happened around seven years ago. Now, though, the Spaniard has turned into an immovable object, holding the best winning percentage in men’s tennis today. To succeed in tennis, you need to constantly improve your game which is something what Rafa has done so well till date and which is something what Berdych has failed to do.

That takes us to the next question – Will he ever win a grand slam at all? For now though it looks all the more unlikely. However, if anything can inspire the Czech then it has to be the career of Goran Ivanisevic, the former Croatian tennis star who finally managed to hold on to a Wimbledon trophy after having struggled for ten long years since his first loss in the final of All England Lawn Tennis Club in 1992 against Andre Agassi. Let us hope that he gets one under his belt in a couple of years or so at least, before age gets the better of him.