Tomas Berdych has crashed out of the China Open following a 6-4, 6-4, loss to world No.37 Pablo Cuevas.
The second seed entered the tournament in good form after claiming his first title of the year in Shenzhen two days ago. The Czech was however far from his best as he coughed and spluttered throughout the match.
The first two games of the match consisted of six break points (four for Berdych and two for Cuevas) but neither player was able to convert. During the seventh game of the match the Uruguayan player finally wore down the Berdych serve by finally breaking to lead 4-3, before backing it up with a love service game. Leading 5-4, Cuevas had two set points at 40-15 before Berdych battled his way back to deuce. The Czech then had the chance to level the set at 5-5 but failed to capitalise on the opportunity as his opponent closed out the opening set.
The second set saw both players improve their service consistency. In eight games there was one break point chance which was for Cuevas to lead 5-3 but he was unable to break. At 4-4 Berdych endured a disastrous service game by producing four unforced errors. The error-stricken game enable Cuevas to break for a chance to serve for the match. Prior to the final game of the match, Berdych received a medical time out as he took some medication. The medical time out couldn’t help the Czech as Cuevas comfortably took the match by winning it with an ace.
The win is the first time that Cuevas has beaten a top 10 player since Andy Roddick at the 2011 Miami Masters. During the one hour and forty-six minute match, Cuevas produced 6 aces, 21 winners and 27 unforced errors. In comparison world No.5 Berdych produced 32 unforced errors along with 16 winners.
In the next round Cuevas will play Croatia’s Ivo Karlovic. Karlovic defeated Shenzhen Open runner-up Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 7-5, 7-6 (1).
