Berd didn’t just demolish Roddick yesterday. He didn’t even “serve notice” to the rest of the draw (too early to say that + they’re not the ones taking him for granted).
He did, however, insert a very large twin-pronged skewer up the rear ends of those that made a Burlesque Pantomime of discrediting his chances.
If he qualifies, his victory against those self-satisfied morons (that wrote him off before the event even began) will be complete. Almost irrelevant what happens from that point on.
There’s nothing especially shrewd in observing he’s had a post-Wimby slump.
It reminds me of those twats that think picking Rafa to win RG makes them some kind of prescient pundit.
Is it really so difficult to see him working his way into form on what is, after all, a surface that should suit his game? The forgiving RR format affords you the luxury of doing just that.
Sure, he might still go back to juggling poo-poo against Rafa – but if that happens, it will be as much a consequence of the idiosyncratic top 8 round robin environment than of any inherent form coming into the event.
Berd admitted to struggling with the pressure that accompanies his new top ten standing and, in particular, of qualifying in the lead up to WTF.
That pressure no longer exists. If anything, his status as a relative ingénue to these proceedings should allow him to relax and, in particular, not to think too much…for that way lies madness.
My only regret is that ARod should form part of the collateral damage.
Rod wasn’t the player he was opposite Rafa – in fact with the amount of time and space he gave to Berd it was, in some ways, the exact opposite of that performance. On the other hand, it’s difficult to see what anyone could have done during that psychedelic spell of tennis Berd went through in the second set.
There’s actually several very plausible permutations for Berd to qualify now – though the cleanest (and easiest to understand) would be for Berd to beat Nadal and for ARod to beat Djoko.
Don’t pretend it can’t happen – we’ve already been there.
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