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Prediction - WHAT THEY SAY  

Steen: Both players are in excellent form and this should be a good contest. Berdych has the game to beat Nadal on this surface but mentally he struggles against elite players so you have to figure Nadal will find a way to win and reach the quarterfinals. Nadal in 4

Yesh: Berdych is rolling back the clock and it is awesome. He’s playing like he once could, and his groundstrokes are just overpowering. Nadal is serving better than we have seen from him in almost a decade, but this match has upset written all over it. Berdych in 4

 

Tomas Berdych lost to Rafael Nadal

Second seed Rafael Nadal swept aside former Wimbledon finalist Tomas Berdych to reach the Australian Open quarter-finals without dropping a set.

Spain's Nadal, 32, beat Czech Berdych 6-0 6-1 7-6 (7-4) in Melbourne.

Nadal won the first nine games, sprinting to a 6-0, 3-0 lead on Rod Laver Arena, before Berdych finally got on the scoreboard. The Spaniard's agility and penetrating shotmaking rattled the Czech throughout the encounter, and he refused to allow him to find any rhythm from the back of the court.

Contesting the ninth match in his comeback, Berdych was visibly fatigued and Nadal capitalised. The Manacor native fired 32 winners, including five aces, while denying both break points faced.

"[Rafa] was playing well," said Berdych. "Nevertheless, the first two sets it was me back [to where I was] six months [ago]. For the third set, I finally showed up on the court, so that's good."

Tomas Berdych's wife, Ester Satorova

Chair Umpire Mohamed Lahyani of Sweden

Tomas Berdych's coach Martin Stepanek