With a thorough victory over Spain's Nicolas Almagro on Monday afternoon in three sets (7-6 (7-4), 6-4, 6-1), No. 6 overall men's seed Tomas Berdych reached the quarterfinals at the U.S. Open for the first time in his career.
The veteran Berdych fought off Almagro's athleticism at the net in the opening set before eventually taking the tiebreaker 7-4, as the inexperienced Almagro began to struggle with his serve as the match pressed on. Along with five double faults over his final two losing sets, the Spaniard was only able to connect on 41% of his first serves .
Berdych, who advanced to the finals at Wimbledon in 2010 and the semifinals at the French Open in the same year, will now have to face a juggernaut in Roger Federer in his quarterfinal match. Federer was given a gift on Monday when his fourth round opponent Mardy Fish pulled out of the tournament reportedly due to 'health reasons', setting up a can't-miss match between Berdych and Federer for a chance to reach the semifinals.
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