Tomas Berdych was successful in defending his Shenzhen title on Sunday, as he defeated Richard Gasquet 7-6(5) 6-7(2) 6-3 in the final.
In the 15th meeting between the two players, it was Gasquet who grabbed the early initiative as he broke in the first game, however the early break was snuffed out by Berdych who broke back straight away. Both men gave nothing away from that point onwards as the first set went to a tiebreak. Berdych raced into an early 4-1 lead as he used his powerful ground strokes to gain momentum. Suddenly though Gasquet won four points in a row to lead 5-4, although he couldn’t keep up the pressure as Berdych capitalised to take the first set tiebreak 7-5.
During the second set Berdych continued his momentum and surged to a 4-2 lead as he looked set to successfully defend his title. Despite this Gasquet continued to be stubborn and saved two match points in the ninth game to keep himself in the match. His stubbornness would be evident as he broke a reckless Berdych to love to level the match at 5 all, and would eventually result in a tiebreak. The Frenchman was dominant from the start and took it 7-2, to level the final at 1 set all.
The final set saw Berdych regain his composure as he broke in the sixth game and this time he would make no mistake by serving out the match to win his second consecutive Shenzhen Open title. Despite winning the title, Berdych was humble in victory, explaining how lucky he is to even be playing again.
“Five weeks ago I was in hospital, now I’m sitting here with the trophy. Things are changing very quickly. Luckily for me, everything is going well, I’m feeling good, sitting here as a winner. I’m just taking all this as a bonus, that I can play and win some matches.” He said.
This win means that Berdych picked up his 13th title of his career and is now only 330 points behind Rafael Nadal in the race to London, while Gasquet is now 13-13 in career finals.
