Berdych storms to Shenzhen title after winning rain-delayed final

Sport360 staff 17:03 05/10/2015
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  • Tomas Berdych won the Shenzhen Open final in 1.48 hours.

    Top seed Tomas Berdych claimed his first ATP World Tour title of the season on Monday with a 6-3 7-6 (9/7) victory over fourth seed Guillermo Garcia-Lopez in the rain-delayed final of the Shenzhen Open.

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    The tournament had to be extended into a further day as heavy rain meant the semi-finals were only able to be completed on Sunday.

    There was one further interruption on Monday, but the 30-year-old Czech prevailed to triumph in one hour and 48 minutes, consolidating fifth place in the Emirates ATP Race To London for the year-ending Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.

    Berdych, who would join Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, Andy Murray and Stan Wawrinka at next month's season finale at the O2, was pleased with the mental strength he showed en route to his win.

    "The last three days were tough, especially mentally to keep being very focused," he told media.

    "I was the one who dealt with that the best. I'm proud of myself to make it happen because these conditions were not easy at all."

    Berdych, who trailed 1-3 in the second set and 5-6 in the tie-break, added: "It was another challenge to finally get the trophy. It was a very close match. I'm really happy with the way I started. I was very focused and very sharp from the beginning.

    "Then I lost my serve. He played a couple of good, crazy shots to get his break. But I managed to break him back and get the second set into a tie-break. The tie-break was really up and down, but I think my experience was the decider. I'm very happy to win like that."

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