Tomas Berdych made short work of Marin Cilic today, beating him 6-4, 6-2 to win the ABN AMRO tournament in the Netherlands. This is his first trophy in 16 months, having gone all of last season without a title. He was the only player in the Top 10 last year without one.
“It feels absolutely amazing,” Berdych said. “It’s been a while, actually 16 months since I won a title. To win a title in Rotterdam it’s a nice bonus. I’m extremely happy with the way I handled it throughout the week. I’ve been serving pretty well, which has been the strong part of my game.”
It was indeed serving that gave the Czech the advantage. He recorded nine aces and had an 82% first serve stat. The downfall for Cilic was 22 unforced-errors. The match was over in 75 minutes.
Cilic, who is newly coached by Goran Ivanisevic, is now 14-4 on the season, a strong start, despite the loss today.
“It was a tough one today,” said Cilic. “What made the difference in the end was that Tomas served really well …. Overall I think the tournament was great. I played great tennis and enjoyed it here. I had a great run of nine [straight] wins and I hope to make that run soon again.”
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Cover Photo (Creative Commons License): Marianne Bevis