By Steve Keating
TORONTO, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Tomas Berdych would not change a
thing despite winning nothing so far this season but a victory
at this week's Toronto Masters would confirm the Czech's status
as a U.S. Open dark horse.
A danger man on all surfaces having advanced to the
Wimbledon final and the French Open semi-finals this year, he
may well be at his best on the North American hardcourts where
he reached the last eight at Indian Wells and the Miami final.
"Definitely," Darren Cahill, a former coach of Andre Agassi
and Roger Federer, told Reuters when asked if Berdych could walk
away from Flushing Meadows with the year's final grand slam.
"Like a lot of Czechs he is a late bloomer.
"His turnaround tournament was Indian Wells. The thing
that's different now is he is playing with confidence, he can
win matches when he's not playing well."
While tennis big guns world number one Rafael Nadal, number
two Novak Djokovic and number three Roger Federer will launch
their hardcourt campaigns in Toronto later this week, Berdych is
already finding his footing on the pavement.
The 24-year-old Czech has one hardcourt event under his
belt, reaching the quarter-finals of the Washington Classic last
week, and eased himself into the Toronto Masters on Tuesday with
a 6-2 6-4 second-round win over Ukraine's Sergiy Stakhovsky.
After a plodding start to the season, Berdych has shot up
the world rankings reaching a career high number seven without
adding to his five ATP Tour titles.
TWO FINALS
While Berdych admitted the loss to Nadal in the Wimbledon
final did linger, he said he would not trade his consistent run
of play for one more victory.
"I was in two finals this year and (have) not won a
tournament yet but I wouldn't change anything I did, for
anything," said Berdych. "So far I have had five (titles) and I
would say right now it's just about the numbers.
"There are still a lot of tournaments to go and for me, I
wouldn't say that it's a goal to just to win another title.
"For me it's important to play three, four, maybe five
semis, some finals and have really good consistency than to win
one tournament and then lose another four in the first round."
Berdych's season made a dramatic turn at Indian Wells where
he reached the quarter-finals in March.
The following week he powered his way into the Miami final,
beating Federer before falling to Andy Roddick.
The Czech was slow to find his form on clay but by the time
he had reached Paris looked right at home at Roland Garros,
taking out Andy Murray on way to the French Open semi-finals.
Berdych took it one step further at the All England Club,
dispatching Federer in the quarter-finals and Djokovic in the
semis to reach his first grand slam final.
"I hope I'm not done and I hope that still the bigger
results are waiting for me," said Berdych.
(Editing by Sonia Oxley; To query or comment on this story
email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)
