Tomas Berdych has booked his place in the second round of Wimbledon courtesy of a rain-affected four-set victory over Ivan Dodig this afternoon.
The Czech led his opponent by two sets to one when play was abandoned on Tuesday due to poor weather, but he managed to hold off a spirited fightback to wrap up the victory 7-6(5) 5-7 6-1 7-6(2) on Wednesday.
Berdych suffered a wobble in the first set when he lost his opening service game, but he immediately broke back before forcing the set into a tie-break.
After winning the breaker 7-5, the 2010 finalist went a break up early in the second set, but Dodig did not fall away as he later grabbed a double break to keep himself in the match.
It took Berdych an hour to win the first set, but he needed just 24 minutes to wrap up the third as he pushed Dodig on the back foot for a second time.
The rain halted the fourth set with Berdych a break up, but upon the resumption of play Dodig recovered that to keep himself in the match.
Berdych hit right back to make it 5-3, though, and while many outside courts brought the covers on, neither player wanted rain to stop play again and they carried on with Berdych serving for the set.
Dodig refused to give in, though, and he saved a match point before earning a second consecutive break and saving yet another match point en route to a tie-break.
It would be third time lucky for the 10th seed, though, as he eased to a 7-2 win in the tie-break to set up a second-round meeting with Benjamin Becker.
Danielle Joynson
