Serial Dubai Bridesmaid Berdych Takes On Chardy

Tomas Berdych has finished second in the last two Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. He will hope to go one place better in 2015 and starts with a match against Jeremy Chardy of France in the first round. The two men face off at 7:00 tomorrow morning.

This year`s fourth seed Berdych lost out to Novak Djokovic in straight sets in 2013, a close run opener ending 7-5 to the Serbian before he took the title with a 6-3 victory in the second. The Czech player earned the opener in his 2014 final against Roger Federer in a 6-3 win though lose the second and third sets 6-4 and 6-3 respectively to miss out on the title in consecutive years. By doing so, he joins the likes of Mikhail Youzhny and Feliciano Lopez, both of whom are two-time losing finalists of the Dubai Duty Free.

Berdych and Chardy have met in ATP competitions twice before, once in 2009 and the second time in this tournament in 2011. Number eight in the world, Berdych picked up victories in both of these matches. Their 2011 appearance in the competition was their only clash on a hard court surface, their meeting in 2009 in Munich being on clay.

As a result of this, the Czech player is 1/10 with most bookmakers to secure progress through to the second round with yet another win over Chardy tomorrow morning. The outsider can be backed at 7/1 with all of 32red, 888sport, bet365 and unibet.

The two men met in the first round of this competition in 2011, Berdych recording a straight sets victory that time around. The then third seed hit the French player for 6-2 in the opener before sealing progression with a 6-3 victory in the second set. A second successive straight sets victory for the 6`5" Monte Carlo resident is available at the best price of 2/5 with Bwin.

There was a seven game margin of victory in that last encounter, Berdych`s 12 games to Chardy`s five. paddy Power are offering odds of 8/15 on there being a margin of victory between five and nine games between the two men and 5/6 on there being five, six or seven games between them. Seven-to-two with the same bookmakers says that the margin of victory, for either the favourite or the underdog, will be exactly five games.

Berdych has performed well in the three competitions he has featured in this year, two ATP tournaments sandwiching his semi-final Australian Open exit. Indeed, he reached the final of both the Doha Open and the ABN AMRO in Rotterdam prior to and following his four set defeat to the hands of Andy Murray down under. Indeed, this 7-6, 0-6, 3-6, 5-7 result was the only time in that tournament that the Czech player failed to pick up a straight sets victory. ladbrokes have 3/1 on the match being taken to three sets, something that did not happen to Berdych in Doha and only occurred twice in Holland.

Chardy has featured in five tournaments this year, only making an impression on his last outing in his stomping ground of France in Marseille`s Open 13. The 28-year-old knocked out third seed Ernests Gulbis 6-3, 6-4, before biting the dust to the eventual tournament victor Gilles Simon. Despite losing in straight sets, the first finished 7-5 before the second was decided through a tie-break. Simon would go on to win his 13th career title and second Open 13.

Coral have odds of 4/1 on there being a second set tie-break in the match tomorrow morning and 1/8 on there not being one.

Go To bet365

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23/02/2015     © Frixo 2024