Berdych is from the Czech Republic and not the choke republic

The 4th round singles, though in my next and last post, I will be mentioning doubles and other random stuff associated with the event, some will be good and others won't be so good, but life is like this.

Del Potro vs. Cilic : This match up is one that has been happening for many years throughout the juniors and now the seniors. Both of these guys are giants, del Potro has filled out and got stronger, which is something Cilic needs to do. I spoke to one of the Croats that knows him, he says Cilic does the work everywhere, but doesn't like gym, sounds like to me that he thinks squats are what you do when you are on the toilet.

The first set was fairly close in the heat, Cilic did well to take the 1st set while only serving at 33 percent of first serves, whereas del Potro was in the high 60s, but at 30 all, the tall Tandil tree mishit a forehand and then threw in a double fault to take the set.

del Potro remained fairly calm and was able to control the rallies and he handled the heat better than Cilic with his extra strength and once he got the second set, he was able to control the tempo of the match and both men were even on unforced errors count in the middle of the third set. Then "the Tandil tree" tightened his game up and Cilic who was getting tired from the heat and the ground he covered, started making more errors, it was his forehand that broke down, towards the end, Cilic was gone and a solid win for del Potro.

Only a matter of time before Cilic makes the top 10 and he needs to get stronger.

Federer vs Berdych : As the old English commentator John Barrett loves to say, most tennis match are lost rather than won, well this statement isn't cryptic, well not to people who read this rather off centre blog, it's not.

This statement basically sums up the match in total, though the term choke gets thrown around loosely. In this case, it had all the hallmarks of a choke, except the part where Berdych was leading a double break in the third set, but he had that in the first set, fortunately he was able to close it out.

The Berdman started very well with groundstrokes from both sides penetrating through Federer’s defences and he even managed to double break in the first set, but no surprise that he fucked one of them up, at least it didn’t harm in the end.

Fortunately these two old ladies had enough for the day and they were generous enough to give me their ticket, though it was in the sun, but beggars can’t be choosers. Berdych continues where he left off with the outstanding shots, showing his ability as a pure ballstriker which is different from being a tennis player, he managed to get through the seconf set.

This match had the potential to make Berdych as a player, there are certain matches in a career that players are known by, whether they win or lose, sometimes this is fair and other times not the case. Both were having fun breaking each others serves, then the big turning point of the match.

Berdman needed to show some balls and mental strength, and this is where it’s even more important to play it point by point, sadly this didn’t happen. The said game was 3-3, where the Berdman missed three easy volleys, at best these were wooden volleys at worst, they were as clumsy as a horny teenage boy trying to get off a bra off his lady friend for the first time.

After this Federer was able to take the 3rd set, change the momentum in his favour, Berdych got the trainer out for his hamstring, but the trainer can’t cure mental fragility at big points in matches. If the player outplays you on big points, then that is just too good, but when it comes down to making schoolboy errors, then it’s a disappointing way to go.

Federer didn’t let the initiative go and that was to be expected and raced to a 4-0 lead over a mentally disintegrated Berdych, who showed some excellent signs in the match, but Tomas Krupa has some work to do with the big Prostejov man.

As for Federer this match was good for him, and he still is the man to beat here in Melbourne.