NAN-S-28
Berdych
Abuja, July 10, 2017 (NAN) Number 11 seed Tomas Berdych on Monday defeated number eight seed Dominic Thiem in a five-set thriller to reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals.
The 31-year-old recorded his second Top 10 match win of the year to knock out Austrian Thiem 6-3, 6-7(1), 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in two hours and 53 minutes.
The victory handed him a place in the quarter-finals at The Championships.
If there was a medal for perseverance, Tomas Berdych would be a recipient.
The Czech, at his strongest Grand Slam championship, continues to roll back the clock to evoke memories of his peak-performance days en route the 2010 Wimbledon final.
“I think I showed pretty good tennis,” Berdych was quoted on ATP World Tour website as saying.
“I was serving very well throughout the whole match. I was making a lot of chances also in the sets that I lost.
“But I think I had it pretty much under control all the time, which was the most important thing, and I was just dictating the game. It’s a win, which is very important to me.”
Now 41-13 at Wimbledon, Berdych will be hoping to equal last year’s semi-final run where he lost to Murray.
The Czech now faces second seed and three-time former champion Novak Djokovic or Adrian Mannarino.(NAN)
VO/OLAL
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(Edited by Olawale Alabi)