The Paradox of Tomas Berdych

Tomas Berdych with his Stockholm Open title

Inconsistent run

Stan Wawrinka’s win at the Australian Open, earlier this year, raised the aspect of the second-tiered players making inroads to majors’ glory. Rather, it was Tomas Berdych who mentioned it first remarking about how the Swiss had made it encouraging for players outside the top-four bracket to try and win majors.

Following up on Wawrinka’s win, Marin Cilic went on to repeat the theme of the underdog winning a major, at the US Open. Berdych, on the other hand, looked to be ostensibly tame surrendering his game, time and again, to an assortment of opponents, including to Wawrinka and Cilic themselves at the Australian Open semi-final and US Open quarter-final respectively. Aside of the sudden dip in his results in the majors this year, the Czech has continued to perplex everyone more with his form, vacillating in his results widely across tournaments on all playing surfaces.

In the past few weeks, he made it to the final of the Beijing Open, without dropping a set, only to lose humiliatingly to Djokovic 6-0, 6-2. Throughout that match, there was no indication of any resistance from Berdych’s end – Djokovic dominated the proceedings and the Czech allowed himself to be dominated. At Shanghai too, the pattern repeated as he built a good run only to be ousted by Gilles Simon in the quarter-final with a second bagel in as many weeks.

The 29-year old’s win at Stockholm over Grigor Dimitrov however has done a lot of good for his chances for the remainder of this season. The win has also, amongst other things, kept him in the race for the World Tour Finals.

The Paradoxical Side of Berdych’s Professional Career

It’s paradoxical to see him struggle so much to qualify for an event to which he’s no stranger, but paradoxes have somehow co-existed with Berdych’s career all this while. The title at Stockholm was his 10th career title which, given his immense potential, appears to be far too limited for his over 12-year long professional career.

It is also a telling statistic in that it speaks of volumes of opportunities which could have been converted, but which, failed to be treated opportunistically. This year Berdych won two titles – at Rotterdam and Stockholm – when the whole of last year, he went without a title. But beside these wins, he’s also made it to three other finals including Beijing, at Dubai and Oeiras. Both at Dubai and Oeiras, he was up by a set before Federer and Berlocq disrupted his rhythm and used it to their advantage. This particular trend is reminiscent of the Czech’s many past results where he’s inexplicably lost his momentum in the match, despite holding early advantages.

The Monte-Carlo resident also holds the unique distinction of being one amongst the few players to have made it to the semi-finals of all four majors. However, he’s managed to make it to the final in the majors only once – at the 2010 Wimbledon – where he lost in straight sets to Rafael Nadal.

Mind versus Game

Between his game and his focus, it’s the latter which severely affects his performances. A stand-out, Berdych’s game is, but his lack of grasp on his focus allows him to be overwhelmed by his opponents, whoever they might be. Self-belief isn’t a problem for the Czech. Rather, it’s the unnecessary aspect of self-doubt creeping in at significant match moments that cause the collapsing of a well-crafted game of his.

His techniques are as solid as they can be, but Berdych does need unshakeable mental fortitude to support the substantiality of his techniques. His approaching Ivan Lendl is thus the start towards attaining this objective.

And while Ivan Lendl may have declined the option of coaching his fellow Czech, Berdych needs a similar kind of coach, who can influence him positively, turning him into a player to be reckoned with, without any exceptions.