ATP World Tour Finals Update: Tomas Berdych Defeats Marin Cilic, 6-3, 6-1
Czech Republic’s Tomas Berdych stayed alive in the 2014 ATP World Tour Finals by beating Croatia’s Marin Cilic, 6-3, 6-1 on Wednesday. Berdych bounced back from a one-sided straight sets loss to Stanislas Wawrinka (Switzerland) in his opening match.
"I felt much better on the court," Berdych said via the tournament’s official website. "But still it was not one of my best. That's fair to say. But I think that's the beauty of this event. One day you can be swept out from the court like I did and in two days' time you can come up and you can play different tennis."
Berdych had multiple opportunities to break Cilic in the opening set and did break him twice on eight chances. That was enough to net the first set win then followed it up with a dominating performance in the second set, where Cilic could only muster 1 game. Berdych finished off Cilic in roughly 1 hour and 15 minutes.
The 29-year-old Czech has to maintain his form however as he’s going up against World No. 1 Novak Djokovic of Serbia in his final match in the group stage. A win means a likely appearance in the semifinal round while a loss could boot him out of the tournament depending on the Stanislas Wawrinka vs. Cilic match.
For Cilic, who dropped a 6-1, 6-1 loss to Djokovic in his opening match, the Croatian needs a minor miracle to advance from the group stage. Cilic hopes that Djokovic beat Berdych and he gets past Wawrinka in dominating fashion for a chance at the London final four. Cilic knows he has to play a lot better than his forgettable performance on Wedensday.
"It seems that the things that I'm doing that are all basically going in a wrong direction,” Cilic stated also in the ATP World Tour Finals website. "Especially with these guys at this kind of level, even small mistakes, or if you're not at your best performances, the outcome is not going to be going in your favor. It's unfortunate. I was looking forward to play here, to do well, to play good matches on a high level. It's tough to handle."
Group A Standings (Win-Loss Record)
Novak Djokovic (2-0)
Stan Wawrinka (1-1)
Tomas Berdych (1-1)
Marin Cilic (0-2)
Djokovic vs. Berdych and Cilic vs. Wawrinka is set on Friday.
