Tomas Berdych opens play on Rotterdam's centre court against Dmitry Tursunov on Thursday.
Berdych looked in sublime form in his opening round clash with Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, demolishing the Spaniard 6-1, 6-2. After a bit of a slump at the end of 2010, Berdych has begun the new season revitalised and looks set to remain a presence in the top ten for some time to come.
If he wins this clash with Tursunov on Thursday morning, it will set up a fascinating quarter-final duel against another power player Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
However do not write off the mercurial Russian. Injuries may have blighted Tursunov for the past few years, seeing him tumble to the depths of 151 in the rankings but the former world number 20 remains a serious threat on his day on a fast court (he stunned Ernests Gulbis, Richard Gasquet and Alexandr Dolgopolov in the autumn) and after coming through qualifying at the weekend, he saw off Andrey Golubev 6-4, 7-5 in the opening round, a decent scalp.
However Berdych is a different kettle of fish. The Czech has won four of their five matches and edged through 7-6, 4-6, 6-1 when they met in Washington last summer.
