TENNIS in DEPTH.

Andy Roddick defeated Thomas Berdych 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 and will face defending champion Radek Stepanek after the Czech veteran brushed past Frenchman Gael Monfils 6-2, 6-1 in the other semi-final.

Roddick looked out of sorts early when he was broken for the first time in the tournament, ending a run of 30 straight service game holds.

The opening break was backed up with a second one and Berdych suddenly looked the stronger of the two, going up 5-0.

After Berdych took the opening set in 34 minutes it seemed to spur Roddick on as he bounced back immediately in the second.

Suddenly Berdych’s returns were not finding the line and the world No 7 ramped up his service games to take an early 3-0 lead, before eventually wrapping up the set in 47 minutes.

The deciding set went with serve before Roddick pounced on a weak Berdych service game to take a 5-4 lead.

The American duly served out the set and the match to move into the final.

“I didn’t feel that I hit the ball badly; he came out and played really well,” said Roddick,

“The biggest part of the match first was the couple of games in the second set – I didn’t want to let him keep rolling.

“I wanted to make sure I stopped the momentum early in the second.”

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Rafael Nadal will play Tomas Berdych in the opening match of the Davis Cup final against the Czech Republic in Barcelona. The world No 2 will be hoping to improve after losing his past four matches – including all three at last week’s ATP World Tour Finals in London.

David Ferrer will face Radek Stepanek in the second singles match of the best-of-five series that starts on Friday.

Ferrer, who hasn’t played since November because of a hamstring injury, was picked to play singles ahead of Fernando Verdasco, who also lost all three of his matches in London.

In Saturday’s doubles, Verdasco and Feliciano Lopez will take on Lukas Dlouhy and Jan Halek, with the tie being played indoors on clay at the Palau Sant Jordi.

Spain, the defending champions, remain the favourites but the form of both of their leading men is a cause for concern.

“It wasn’t a big surprise,” Nadal said of his ATP Tour defeats. “When you are not 100 per cent at a tournament like that you’re going to lose. Here I am 100 per cent. I will be playing a little bit better I hope. You can’t always play perfect but I think I’m ready for tomorrow.”

Nadal, who has a 10-0 record in singles rubbers on clay, has won his past four matches against Berdych since an bad-tempered defeat in Madrid three years ago.

“There’s no problem between Rafael and I,” Berdych said. “I don’t think this will play a part in this game. He’s going to play at home and he’s going to play on his favourite surface. He’s going to be at his best.”

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At the start of this season, defeat for Spain in a home Davis Cup tie against a nation like the Czech Republic – solid, but hardly one of the competition’s powerhouses – would have been unthinkable.

But that was before Nadal’s season became hampered by injuries and before the brief promise of David Ferrer and Fernando Verdasco also faded into relative mediocrity the further they got from the clay-court season.

Make no mistake, Nadal, Verdasco and co are still favourites to defeat a Czech team led by Radek Stepanek and Tomas Berdych when they meet in Barcelona on Friday.

But there are plenty of pointers to suggest a Spanish victory will not necessarily be as straightforward as any tennis pundit in their right mind would have predicted some time ago.

For a start, there is the increasing concern over Nadal’s form since his return from injury, a concern underlined by his woes at the World Tour finals, where he lost all three matches and was bounced out.

Even Nadal himself hints at needing a break.

“The batteries sometimes finish and you need to buy new ones, that’s what I’m going to do next year,” said Nadal after rounding off his London appearance with a loss to Novak Djokovic.

If that wasn’t worrying enough for Spain coach Albert Costa, Verdasco also left London with three straight losses and some injury concerns and admitted the Czechs enter the final with a distinct advantage.

“It is important to have more time to prepare for the Davis Cup final,” admitted Verdasco. “They were practising for a week on clay already. We will have to get used to it as soon as possible.”

The prodigiously talented Berdych has been in his usual infuriating form all year, flattering to deceive at regular intervals and somehow still failing to announce his big-time arrival with a Grand Slam breakthrough.

Berdych was beaten on the US hard courts by Nadal this year but also took a set off Verdasco in a tight tie in Barcelona and won the clay-court event in Munich. The feeling persists that he thrives when the rest least expect it.

Meanwhile, the mercurial, clever Stepanek ended a patchy year on something of a high, reaching the semi-finals in Basel then repeating the feat at the Paris Masters, beating Andy Murray and Juan Martin Del Potro along the way.

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With or without Verdasco the Spanish Davis Cup team will enter the final as the odds on favourites. They are at home, on clay, and have 2 top ten players in their lineup, whereas the Czechs have none. Looks like an easy romp for the home team. But they might be over confident.

Rafa on clay, even at 75% of his norm is still the best clay court player and will win both his matches. The doubles I give to the Czechs, they are the best pair. So it all comes down to Spain’s #2 player, and whether it is Ferrer or Verdasco, Radel Stepanik will win his rubber. The score could be tied 2-2 going into the final match between Berdych and Verdasco/Ferrer……a toss up!

Fernando Verdasco will be hoping to shake off some niggly injuries to take his place in the Spanish team to face Czech Republic in next week’s Davis Cup by BNP Paribas Final in Barcelona.

Verdasco has been selected in the squad by Albert Costa, Spain’s captain, alongside Rafael Nadal, David Ferrer and Feliciano Lopez. It will be his 11th Davis Cup tie since making his debut against Slovak Republic in 2006.

“The foot is feeling good,” said Verdasco, who is competing at the ATP World Tour Finals in London this week. “Physically, I was with some problems in my knees but I took some days off.

“I hope that all the matches here at the Masters will be without pain and also I will arrive in Spain to play the Davis Cup feeling good. I need to see day-by-day how I will feel and then we will see if I am the best option to play.

“If not, I will not be angry. I just want to win the Final of the Davis Cup and if it’s me playing, and I’m the one, then of course I’ll be so happy.

“But if I’m not ready, or if I have pain, or I feel that Ferrer or another guy of my team is in better shape than me and can play better than me, then I will talk to the captain.

“I will not be selfish and think only about myself. I will think about the team and winning the Davis Cup, whoever plays the matches.”

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The Russian, who is retiring after next month’s Paris Masters, claimed Berdych feigned injury during his 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 win.

The 29-year-old refused to shake Berdych’s hand at the end of the match, after his opponent called on the trainer to treat a knee problem during their second-round contest.

“Just come on; just grow up a little bit; 26 years-old; just deal with that,” he said. “If you’re losing, just be a man; be a man and lose as a man.

“Don’t pretend that you are injured and then you start running around and start to hit winners and then all of a sudden you pull the hands up in the air after winning the match.

“So then of course the guy will say: ‘No, I’ve been injured but then I felt a little bit better’.

“Of course he will find 10,000 excuses. Still, it’s not enough. You’re playing or you’re not playing. If you’re playing, so just shut up and play.”

Safin then rounded on Andy Roddick, and other players who have complained about the length of the season, saying he had suggested it should be made shorter in 2004 but had been shot down.

On Monday, Roddick called on the ATP to reduce the length of the men’s season or risk shortening the careers of top players such as Roger Federer and Andy Murray.

“In 2004 we had this discussion in Olympic Games with Roddick about it and they were blaming me that I’m playing too much,” said Safin.

“And I was saying that the season is too long. We should make it shorter. And the guys, they jumped on me, like I was the one who was wrong.

“So look at all of them – everybody is falling apart. Everybody is getting injured left and right, and everybody is complaining the season is long. It takes six years to realise that something is wrong.

“They just have to deal with that, not when they are 21 and ambitious and want to make money. They have to think a little bit with their brains and to make the career a little bit longer.”

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Czech Tomas Berdych fought hard to de-rail the in-form Marin Cilic, breaking serve in the final game of the match to defeat the No. 12 seed 7-6(8), 3-6, 6-4. It is Berdych’s second victory over Cilic, having also defeated the Croatian in five sets in the Davis Cup semi-finals last month.

World No. 20 Berdych reached back-to-back quarter-finals in Kuala Lumpur (l. to Soderling) and Tokyo (l. to Youzhny) in the past two weeks and has compiled a 33-22 mark on the year. The 24 year old, who won his fifth ATP World Tour title at the BMW Open (d. Youzhny) in May, next will face Marat Safin.

The No. 13-ranked Cilic is one of several players in the race to clinch a spot at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in November and boosted his bid with a runner-up finish at the China Open (l. to Djokovic) last week. The 21 year old, who ousted Andy Murray to reach his first Grand Slam quarter-final at the US Open, dropped to a 40-18 mark on the season.

Robin Soderling, a strong contender to qualify for the season finale in London, was rarely troubled as he cruised past Romanian Victor Hanescu 6-3, 6-4, breaking serve three times from six opportunities. The No. 11-ranked Swede, who reached his first major final at Roland Garros (l. to Federer) in June, is coming off consecutive semi-final showings in Kuala Lumpur (l. to Davydenko) and Beijing (l. to Djokovic) and improved to a 40-17 match record on the season.

The 25-year-old Soderling next will face Spaniard Nicolas Almagro, who fired 23 aces and saved eight of nine break points as he edged Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany 6-7(2), 6-1, 7-6(6) in two hours and 11 minutes.

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Spain reached its second straight Davis Cup final when Feliciano Lopez and Tommy Robredo defeated Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram 76 67 64 62.

A flicked backhand volley from Robredo clinched the rubber and the tie to give Spain its 7th successive Davis Cup victory and extend its run of home victories to 17.

Spain will face Czech Republic in the final in Spain on 4-6 December with the venue to be announced in the next two weeks.

The Czechs became the first of the finalists after Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek accounted for Marin Cilic and Lovro Zovko. Berdych and Stepanek have achieved an honour that their nation has enjoyed just twice before in the 76 years the Czechs have been part of Davis Cup. In 1975, Czechoslovakia was runner-up to Sweden and then in 1980, led by Ivan Lendl, they beat Italy to win the title.

Berdych and Stepanek showed no ill effects of their long five set matches in the singles on the opening day. They came in as the substitutes for US Open doubles champion Lukas Dlouhy and Jan Hernych, and defeated Marin Cilic, who took the place of Roko Karanusic, and Lovro Zovko 61 63 64 in 2hr 16min.

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