Berdych Tops Cilic to Win China Open at BetLM

Berdych Tops Cilic to Win China Open

Updated Oct 9, 2011 11:22 AM ET

BEIJING

Tomas Berdych beat Marin Cilic 3–6, 6–4, 6–1 to win the China Open on Sun­day, and Agnieszka Rad­wan­ska topped Andrea Petkovic, 7–5, 0–6, 6–4 to claim the women’s title, her sec­ond in as many weeks.

The vic­tory lifted Berdych past Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to No. 7 in the world stand­ings and gave the Czech valu­able points toward the season-ending ATP World Tour Finals.

It was the third-seeded Berdych’s first finals appear­ance this sea­son after los­ing in six semi­fi­nals, and his first title since Munich in 2009.

”To bring this title really means a lot to me. After 29 months, it’s been quite a long time, so I’m happy that I could break this up,” said Berdych, whose best per­for­mance to date came in the 2010 Wim­ble­don final that he lost to Rafael Nadal.

Cilic served out the first set emphat­i­cally with an ace, but Berdych raced to a 3–0 lead in the sec­ond. While Cilic ral­lied to keep it close, Berdych broke him at 5–4 to win the set and turned the match for good in the third game of the third set.

”I had a pretty good start to the sec­ond set. I made a break and at that moment I started to feel, that’s the chance, I can do it well,” Berdych said.

Cilic, of Croa­tia, seemed firmly in com­mand in the first set, mak­ing few mis­takes and serv­ing strongly. Berdych held on, how­ever, even­tu­ally wear­ing him down and tak­ing all four of the final games.

”I’m feel­ing a lit­tle dis­ap­pointed by the loss today,” said Cilic, who missed out on a cru­cial chance to break Berdych at the end of the sec­ond set.

”I didn’t give up. A few points decided the sec­ond set … then the third set went the way it did,” he said.

In the women’s final, 11th-seeded Rad­wan­ska recov­ered after fail­ing to win a sin­gle game in the sec­ond set in a match last­ing more than 2 1/2 hours.

The two broke each other’s serves repeat­edly over lengthy ral­lies before Rad­wan­ska finally pulled ahead 5–4 in the decider and served out for the win after the ninth-seeded Petkovic saved the first match point.

Radwanska’s third title of the year came on the heels of her vic­tory in the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo on Oct. 1.

Rad­wan­ska, who lost the 2009 final in Bei­jing to Svet­lana Kuznetsova, is 5–0 against Petkovic.

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