Tomas Berdych will take some stopping when he plays Nicolas Mahut in the quarter-finals of ATP Montpellier.
Berdych took just 56 minutes to dispose over world number 142 Florent Serra in the second round. The top seed crushed Serra 6-0, 6-2, dropping just 12 points on serve and hitting nine aces.
It was no surprise. Berdych is deadly on his day indoors and he was untouchable during the Hopman Cup (held in an indoor arena in Perth) at the start of the year.
He'll have a tougher challenge against Mahut on Friday who relishes the challenge of taking on the top players and his serve-volley game is ideally suited to this surface. It's been an unusually bright start to the year for Mahut who reached the third round of the Australian Open and he served up an indoor masterclass against sixth seed Florian Mayer in the second round here.
Mahut won 7-6(3), 6-3 in just 83 minutes, jumping out to a 4-1 lead in the first set tiebreak and clinching it on a Mayer double fault. Two breaks saw the Frenchman comfortably ease through the second set.
Berdych has won both of their previous career matches, the last one coming in straight sets at the 2008 Thailand Open.
