If Stockholm Open, Sweden

Men’s Final: [CR7] Tomas Berdych (CZE) vs. [CR10] Grigor Dimitrov (BUL)

There was no holding back today as both players were focused on winning, for differing reasons perhaps, but the desire was equally strong on both sides.  Dimitrov took the first set, but it was not a given that he would win the match because up to that point, Berdych was the better player.  A sliver of doubt crept in as Berdych was serving for the set and that threw off his serve for two consecutive games and cost him the set.

Surprisingly, Berdych did not give into doubt, he quickly regained his focus and maintained a positive attitude, despite having a losing record against Dimitrov. Interestingly, Dimitrov lost his focus early in both the second and third sets and he was never able to recover.  They both played at a high level, the difference may have been that Dimitrov was more stressed because he was trying to defend a title for the first time.  Or perhaps Berdych has found his confidence in his game, he struck the ball with conviction the majority of the match and kept his errors under control.

Berdych accomplished what he needed to and Dimitrov will have to try to figure out why he was unable to maintain his focus on serve, the one shot he should have felt in control of.

SCORE: Berdych d. Dimitrov 5-7, 6-4, 6-4