LONDON – Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic is the sixth player to qualify for the season-ending Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, to be held November 20-27 at The O2 in London, featuring the world’s Top 8 players and Top 8 doubles teams.As a result of Juan Martin del Potro losing in the semi-finals of the Valencia Open on Saturday, Berdych is guaranteed one of the three remaining spots. The final two positions will be determined at the BNP Paribas Masters Paris, which starts on Monday.
Berdych, who made his debut last year in London, going 1-2 in round robin play, is the first player from the Czech Republic to finish in the Top 10 in back-to-back seasons since Petr Korda in 1991-92.
In October, he captured his sixth career ATP World Tour title in Beijing (d. Cilic), his first title since May 2009. He won a personal-high 48 matches for second time (2006) and advanced to six semi-finals, three on hard courts –Chennai, Dubai and ATP Masters 1000 Cincinnat – and seven quarter-finals, including Australian Open for the first time (l. to Djokovic). Overall, he reached the quarter-finals or better 14 times. He only lost twice in the first round during the year, at Roland Garros and in Basel.
“It feels great to qualify for the second consecutive year,” said Berdych. “It was one of my goals at the beginning of 2011 and my results have been very consistent this season. I have great memories of The O2, the event was amazing last year and I hope I will do better this time.”
The Barclays ATP World Tour Finals is the world's biggest indoor tennis event, where each of the top eight players and top eight doubles teams are drawn to play a minimum of three round-robin matches to determine which four players and teams advance to the knockout semi-finals.
Barclays ATP World Tour Finals - The Contenders(Based on Year-to-Date South African Airways 2011 ATP Rankings points as of 5 November, 2011.
|
|
No comments:
Post a Comment