TENNIS ATP Oeiras – Minutes after the women’s trophy ceremony, the men took to the court for the ATP Portugal Open semi-finals: Tomas Berdych crushed Victor Hanescu 6-2 6-2 before Carlos Berlocq stopped Gimeno-Traver’s cavalcade beating him 7-6 6-2. Joshua Bosco
The first match of the day saw top seed Berdych cruising to an easy win against World No.93 Hanescu. The first five games followed serve then, on 3-2, Berdych raised his game and broke the Romanian twice to close the set 6-2 in just 25 minutes, losing only three points on serve.
On a roll, the Czech broke Hanescu for the third consecutive time at the beginning of the second set to take a 3-0 lead. Nothing of importance happened until the seventh game, when Berdych conceded his first – and only – break point of the match. Hanescu missed his chance, Berdych went 5-2 up and then closed the match in the following game, breaking the Romanian for the fourth time to take the match 6-2 6-2 in just 1h 4m. The Czech closed the semi-final with a perfect 4 out of 4 break points converted.
Berdych will play his 22nd career final tomorrow: he holds a losing 9-12 record, including a 5-7 record in ATP World Tour 250 Series tournaments. It will be the Czech’s third final of the year, after the Rotterdam Open in February (d. Cilic) and the Dubai Championships in March where he lost to Federer. Should he win in Portugal, he will overtake David Ferrer to become World No.5.
Hanescu, who was denied his 200th career win, will move up eleven spots to World No.82 next week.
In the second semi-final, Argentine Carlos Berlocq reached his third career final stopping qualifier Gimeno-Traver’s dream run. The first set started with a break from Berlocq followed by a quick break back from the Spaniard: from this point on, neither player conceded more than two points in their service games. In the tiebreak, the two exchanged minibreaks at the start and then continued on serve until 6-7 when Berlocq broke to take the set, having previously saved a set point serving 5-6 down.
The second set was more of a formality with the more experienced Berlocq getting an early break and then striking again in the seventh game, leaving him to serve for the set on 5-2. Wasting no time the Argentine won four straight points to take the match 7-6 6-2 in 1h 35m.
By reaching the semi-final, Gimeno-Traver moved up 23 places in the rankings and now sits at World No.75.
Berlocq enters tomorrow’s match with a 1-1 record in finals, having lost in Vina del Mar to Juan Monaco in 2012 and having won against Fernando Verdasco at the Swedish Open last year.
It will be the fourth encounter between Berdych and Berlocq, with the Czech leading the Head2Head 3-0, although their last match dates back to 2012.
