The Last Word returns, and each weekday, starting on Monday, December 5, we'll give you our year-end thoughts about tennis' best players—this time focusing on the ATP and WTA Top 10. We'll alternate tours each day; here's who we've looked at so far.
Best of 2011
No stranger to a late-season surge, Berdych won just one tournament this year, and that was in the fall in Beijing (d. Marin Cilic for the title). His highlight at that event was an upset of then-No. 7 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the semis.
Worst of 2011
Although he has a big game ideally suited to hard courts, Berdych grew up on red clay, and just last year had been to the semifinals at the premier clay-court event, the French Open. So how does the guy lose to No. 140 Stephane Robert in the first round of Roland Garros? That’s easy: 9-7 in the fifth, in a match during which Berdych obviously was feeling the pressure.
Year in Review
Perhaps it’s time to retire that “head-case” reputation Berdych earned and deserved for so many years. For he was a pleasantly consistent player in 2011, which is the only way you can get to be ranked No. 7 while winning just one tournament—and that one not even a Grand Slam or Masters event.
In the dozen tournaments between Chennai and the French Open, Berdych lost before the quarters just twice (at Indian Wells and Monte Carlo), and he was a semifinalist three times. He wasn’t taking bad losses either, the worst of them a quarterfinal defeat inflicted by his heir-apparent as a head-case, Thomaz Bellucci.
In the post-Euroclay period, Berdych was equally steady. From Halle on, he was out before the quarters just four times, and that includes a retirement during his third-round battle at the U.S. Open with Janko Tipsarevic. All told, Berdych reached the quarters at 16 events, and the semifinals or beyond nine times. It’s small wonder that he was one of the elite eight who contested the ATP World Tour Finals—and that he made it to the semis there, too, before Tsonga shut him down for the year.
See for Yourself
While Berdych has a huge serve and impressive firepower off the ground from either wing, his greatest asset is his all-court versatility. He’s very comfortable attacking, rallying or defending, as you can see in these highlights from his win over the ultimate ATP grinder, David Ferrer.