Tomas Berdych of Czech Republic has managed to defeat Bjorn Phau of Germany in straight sets to secure a place in the semi-final of the Kingfisher Open 2006 . Earlier, the word had spread that this match was shaping up into the most competitive clash of the tournament as it featured the 3rd (Berdych) and 6th seeds (Phau) respectively.

Bjorn Phau has enjoyed reasonable success playing on Indian courts before during the Chennai Open earlier this year. Berdych on the other hand is a young up and coming player in the ATP circuit, who has already climbed to rank # 13 in the newly released ATP singles rankings. Both players have had a relatively smooth path up till now and this was definitely going to be the toughest encounter for them.

The Czech served first and was immediately all over his opponent. Berdych started the match with two tremendous aces proving why there has been a lot of talk about his big booming serve. Before anyone in the stadium could realize, Berdych had broken Phau’s first serve and had taken a very swift 2-0 lead to put his opponent under great pressure.

Berdych’s next game of serve was dealt with a lot better by Phau, who started moving around the court a lot more and encountered Berdych’s strong backhands really well. But it wasn’t enough to break the young Czech who was running away with the set, taking a commendable 3-0 lead.

Then as the set started to progress, Phau started to lead a tremendous fight back after holding his serve comfortably, the German started to pick up the pace of his game and as a result of some great backhands, he came very close to breaking Berdych’s serve. Just as it looked like that was about to happen, Tomas came back with a few tremendous serves to bring the game to deuce. And after that there was no stopping the young athlete who was running away with first set, securing a 4-1 lead by this time.

For some reason it didn’t appear like the German could match up to Berdych’s speed of moving around the court. Berdych was a lot more aggressive and came to the net a lot more in comparison with Phau who stayed back and preferred playing long volleys. Despite the sixth game of the set going into its fourth deuce, Phau hung in there and managed to hold his serve and keep his hopes alive of winning the first set. Berdych led four games to two. The Czech man with the big serve lashed out two quick aces and followed it up with another great serve to take a 5-2 lead.

Despite the persistence of Phau, Berdych overpowered him and took the set 6-3 in the end and it was the German who had to pick up his game big time to try and counter the Czech in the second set.

The start of the second set saw one big change at least, and that was Bjorn Phau’s t-shirt and started the set off really well for the German who held his serve. The next game saw it all… one controversial call made by the chair umpire, Phau losing his temper for a few minutes and arguing with the umpire and then a few very sloppy returns by the German, some tremendous serves by the Czech, and all of this eventually resulted in Berdych holding his serve with a lot of ease.

It almost appeared like Phau had to work a lot harder than Berdych even while he was serving. He had to work really hard for every point and with some solid grit and a few good ground strokes, the German managed to hold his serve twice and take a 2-1 lead.

The second set was proving out to be a lot tighter and tougher for both the players and Berdych’s game wasn’t relatively all that better. The tension was mounting, both players were giving it their all and both managed to hold their serves after a lot of battling.

But all of a sudden, a few unforced errors by Phau meant that he would be fighting from behind yet again, as Berdych was able to break Phau’s game and then managed to hold his serve to go 4-2 up in the second set. The gritty German still refused to back down as he kept fighting to hold his serve and cut the lead down to four games to three.

One of the most fascinating games of the match was played in the 9th of the second set, when Phau was 3-5 down trying to hold his serve. After a series of loose shots and lost points, the German struck back with tremendous ground strokes to hold on to his serve. And then it was Berdych’s turn to serve for the match and for a place in the semi final of the Kingfisher Open 2006.

And just when it looked like Berdych would hold his serve to win the match, there came a little twist in the tale as he struck the nets way too many times to go 15-40 down in the tenth game. And yet again, Berdych struck back with some booming serves to take the game to deuce. In what turned out to be a match situation that was probably never predicted midway through the second set, Bjorn Phau managed to break Berdych’s serve and level the second set at five games a piece.

Everything that the German had worked so hard for in the second set was almost just thrown away in a matter of five minutes as he managed to get broken and gave away the essential advantage to Berdych, who had another chance to serve for the match at this point. The third seed’s confidence was very evident again as the big serves returned to his repertoire and it took three good serves to finish things off. Tomas Berdych won the match 6-3, 7-5 to book a place in the semi final of the Kingfisher Open 2006.

Berdych will clash against either Mario Ancic or Stefan Koubek in the semi-final.