Stan can no longer finish top of group A following his - rather unlucky I thought - defeat to Nadal in two tiebreak sets. He should certainly have won the first of those sets and the effort he put into destroying his racket shortly after it showed he thought so too. So it's now 12-0 to Nadal in the H2H.
Berdych is up against a similarly daunting H2H tomorrow night - his record is 3-16 against Rafa. You might be surprised to learn though that the Czech player has a losing H2H record against EVERY other player in this eight-man contest. However Tomas played superbly to beat Ferrer in straight sets to give himself a chance of qualifying for the semis. All he has to do now is beat Rafa!
I took 8/1 Berdych winning the group at the start and as he is about to play his last group match he is still 8/1. To finish top he would need to win in straight sets. A tall order but I have seldom seen him play better than against Ferrer. Rafa is through to the semis whatever the result tomorrow and in addition has been confirmed as year-end number one following his second win in the RR (against Stan).
The key to the match will be the Berdych serve. Against Ferrer he lost only one point in the entire match when his first serve went in. Based on what I saw this evening (Delpo's bold effort) I think the court may be getting quicker which could aid the Czech's chances.
Obviously should it be 2-0 to TB we will have a winning bet. I am going to have an additional bet, however, which would still see TB through to the semis, but as runner-up to Nadal:
1pt Berdych to beat Nadal by 2-1 in sets @ 8/1 Bet365
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