Roger Federer believes Tomas Berdych is finally maximising his talent after the Czech knocked him out of the Cincinnati Masters on Friday.
Berdych has not enjoyed the same success at the highest level in 2011 but he has established himself in the top ten and Federer knows exactly how dangerous he can be after losing three of their past four matches.
"I feel he wasn't really living up to his potential, was he - I don't want to say for a very long time - but I remember he did win Paris indoors years back, right ?" Federer mused. "I think that was first glance at how good he can be, plus the match where he beat me at the Olympics in Athens. Then I guess we were all kind of waiting for him to do something. Maybe that's the time where I was able to beat him more often. It was in those times when basically I was losing every, I don't know, 30th match. So it was like hard to beat my anyway."
"Lately he's been playing well, I thought he played fantastic in Wimbledon (2010). I shouldn't have lost in Miami against him. And then here was somewhat close as well. I think it's been very even. Unfortunately I couldn't turn this one around today."
Federer's record against top ten opposition has left something to be desired this year, he's lost the majority of his matches against those guys although several of those losses have come against the red hot Novak Djokovic.
The Swiss insisted he was happy with his level this week, particularly the way he played against Juan Martin Del Potro but he knows he has work to do if he's to challenge in New York.
