Tomas Berdych begins his Cincinnati Masters campaign against Juan Monaco in the second round today.
By and large, Berdych’s 2011 season has not lived up to the huge promise he showed in the first half of 2010 where he appeared to be destined for a place in the top five. The Czech will be quite disappointed with his efforts in Montreal last week where after getting past two dangerous opponents in Alex Dolgopolov and Ivo Karlovic, he fell in straight sets to Janko Tipsarevic in the quarters. The draw had opened up but instead it was Mardy Fish who capitalized and went on to make the final.
Berdych will be hoping to improve on last year’s efforts in Cincinnati where he fell in the third round to Marcos Baghdatis in straight sets.
It’s a reasonable draw for him, and he will fully expect to reach the quarters where either Roger Federer or Juan Martin Del Potro will probably lie in wait.
He has never lost to Monaco before. The Argentine piled on more misery for the out of form Tommy Haas, winning their first round clash in three sets last night but Berdych has beaten him twice in straight sets this year. That was on Monaco’s favoured clay aswell, at the Masters events in Rome and Madrid.
