London, England (SportsNetwork.com) – World No. 7 Tomas Berdych was an easy
round-robin winner Wednesday at the season-ending $6 million ATP World Tour
Finals in London.
This week’s sixth seed blew past eighth-seeded U.S. Open champion Marin Cilic
6-3, 6-1 in 75 minutes at The O2. The Czech Berdych tallied four service
breaks, compared to zero for the Croatian star Cilic.
Berdych is now 6-4 lifetime against Cilic, including 2-2 this season.
Day 4’s Group A night session match will pit world No. 1 Wimbledon champion
Novak Djokovic against third-seeded Australian Open titlist Stan Wawrinka.
Surprisingly, all seven matches so far this week have ended in straight sets.
Group A features the two-time reigning and three-time overall Tour Finals
champion Djokovic (1-0), Wawrinka (1-0), Berdych (1-1) and Cilic (0-2).
Djokovic topped Rafael Nadal in last year’s finale in London. The 27-year-
old Serbian star is two wins away from clinching the year-end No. 1 ranking
for the third time in four years.
This week’s four-player Group B boasts second-seeded Wimbledon champion Roger
Federer (2-0), fourth-seeded U.S. Open runner-up Kei Nishikori (1-1), fifth-
seeded British favorite Andy Murray (1-1) and seventh-seeded Canadian slugger
Milos Raonic (0-2).
On Thursday, the 17-time Grand Slam king Federer will battle Murray and
Nishikori will take on Raonic in some more round-robin play. Federer and
Murray have split 22 career matchups, but Federer is 2-0 this year and 3-0
versus Murray all-time at the Tour Finals.
Federer, who is making a record 13th consecutive appearance at the Tour
Finals and still has an outside chance of capturing the year-end top
ranking, holds the record for the most titles at this exclusive event with
six.
If Federer were to qualify for his 12th career Tour Finals semifinal, it would
tie the record set by Ivan Lendl. The 33-year-old Swiss icon would also be the
oldest player to advance to the last four since 2003 runner-up Andre Agassi.
Nishikori, Raonic and Cilic are making their Tour Finals debuts this week.
Round-robin action will be staged here through Friday, followed by the
semifinals on Saturday and lucrative final on Sunday.
