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CHINA OPEN

October 7, 2011

Tomas Berdych

BEIJING, CHINA

T. BERDYCH/F. Verdasco
6-1, 6-0

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. (Through translation.) Comment on your performance for today. At the beginning of the match you were broken, but you staged a dramatic comeback by winning 12 games in a row. Now you're getting closer to the year-end ATP World Tour Finals. What you do you think?
TOMAS BERDYCH: Well, yeah, the first thing today that didn't go that well was the first game that I lost in the match. That's for sure the thing that I need to improve for the next match. Not today, but for next matches it could be very important to not lost the first game in the match.
Then I feel really good on the court and play really well. It's the game what I want to play; that's why the result was how was it.
The other thing, yeah, about the London, this is really too far ahead. I'm right now in Beijing where I want to play my best tennis. I want to be ready for my semifinal tomorrow, and that's it. I'm not thinking about any other points or anything or qualifying for London.
I did it last year and was not pretty much good way how to do it. That's probably all.

Q. With your win today, you're now 6-1 against Verdasco all-time on hard court. Why do you think you have been so dominant on that particular surface?
TOMAS BERDYCH: Well, I mean, tough to say. Probably that, you know, the hard court is much more suitable for my game style, that I can play more aggressive, that I can give him much more pressure, less pace on the court, and then he starts to do more mistakes, more unforced errors.
That's the game what I want to play. We played I think once or a few times on clay, and that was the difference: that he can cause much more damage with all his spin. It's just the differences with the surfaces. And that's how it is. You have a guy that's just going to be opposite.
Just good for me that we play more matches on hard than on clay.

Q. Two questions. Firstly, congratulations for your victory today. It's great to see that you perform so well recently. Do you have any expectations that you can win the China Open for the first time this year? And second question: You have stepped into the final of Wimbledon last year. That's a great memory for you. Do you think that some player, anybody like you or Tsonga or Fish or Soderling, are able to create a situation that the top players aren't always dominating the Grand Slams?
TOMAS BERDYCH: Well, so for the first question, to do that means - win the China Open for the first time - I still need to win two more matches. It's really too far. I still need to take it as I did it until now, which means go step by step.
So semifinal tomorrow. I still don't know the opponent. Both of the players going to be really tough. And if I'm going to prepare well as I did for my previous matches, I have a good chance to play well again and try to win next match. Then if it happens, then I can do it, I can try to repeat it and did it for the next one. So, again, I go step by step.
And the second question, well, you know, I mean, it's really tough if one of us out of top four players can really get into the level of them. I mean, all of us are strong enough to beat single, like a single ones from those top four guys, even Roger, Rafa, Novak, and Andy.
But to do it like constantly for all the season and winning some slams, then, you know, that's a really big challenge. Those are four really top guys. Probably if there would be only one there could be a much, much bigger chance to win some slam or something. But there are four really strong.
But that's a nice challenge even for us, even for the spectators who come to see the tennis. As I'm sitting here, I'm trying to do the best to get as close as possible to them.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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