Berdych, Raonic in final battle

Top seed Tomas Berdych and big-serving Milos Raonic will play in the final of the US$567,530 ATP Thailand Open at the Impact Arena Muang Thong Thani today.

Berdych of the Czech Republic outlasted fourth-seeded Gilles Simon of France 6-7 (5-7) 6-2 7-5 for his first victory over the Frenchman since 2009 while Canadian Raonic came back from a disastrous first set to upset defending champion Richard Gasquet of France 3-6 7-5 6-4. 

The world No 6 Berdych finally put an end to his losing streak against the Frenchman and 2009 champion, who beat him three times since 2009. He has improved to 3-5 against Simon and reached the final in Thailand for the first time in three attempts.

 “With Gilles you know it’s going to be long. He likes to play long rallies, and I was trying to deal with that today. The last game was very long, very tough but my serves helped me to finish it,” said Berdych who is into his third final of the season. 

He reached back to back finals in Dubai and Marseilles but lost to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Novak Djokovic respectively. His last title was in Stockholm last October. 

“It’s been a while. It’s true. It’s going to be my third final this year. I hope it’s going to happen the third time, but I have to be at my best. I need to recover for the final as I’m quite tired now,” added Berdych who lost to Raonic in Cincinnati last year in three sets. 

“Milos is a really a great player. He serves big and plays aggressive tennis. He is playing great tennis at the moment.” 

After losing the first set, Berdych, thanks to an error from Simon, strode to a 3-0 lead in the second set. His impressive returns gave him another break to widen the gap to 5-2. The Czech then staved off a couple of break points before landing the set 6-2 with an ace. 

In the deciding set both players were solid in their games until Simon showed signs of nerves and fell 0-40 on his serves at 5-5. 

Berdych capitalised on that chance with a forehand cross court winner to break for 6-5. The Czech fought from 0-40 and used huge serves to close the match after two hours and 24 minuets. 

Raonic, the world No 11, was undone by the unforced errors which cost him the first set. But thundering serves that flew over 200mph many times helped him from time to time in the second and third sets. 

The second seeded Gasquet, who had been consistent most of the time, dropped his game when it counted the most. He was erratic with his serves in the last games of the second and third sets.

“There were a lot of difficulties. He was playing really well. It was not too much of thing, losing the first set. I did a lot of good things to win. He didn’t make a lot of errors. I just said to myself I had to focus on my first serves,” said the 22-year-old Raonic, who is looking for his second title of the year after San Jose.

“It’s going to be a tough match. We both had long ones today. But I don’t think that is gonna be any factor. It should be about who controls the points earlier, who can controls the centre of the court more.”