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With all the focus at the Aviation Club being on the 'big two' of Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic, third seed Tomas Berdych admitted he's happy to fly under the radar after a gritty win over Russian veteran Nikolay Davydenko.
The 2010 Wimbledon finalist cruised through the opening set and survived a second set tie-break to take the match 6-3, 7-6 and advance to the quarter-finals for the first time in Dubai.
All things going to plan, the Czech will meet Australian Open champion Djokovic in the semi-finals. However, he refuses to look any further than today's final-eight clash with Germany's Philipp Petzschner.
"The last two matches we've played were very close and very tough ones," the 25-year-old said. "He plays a very aggressive game and he likes this surface and the fast conditions.
"He's done well so, for me, it's just the next opponent that I need to get prepared for- start from the beginning, take it point by point and try to go through again."
Before yesterday, Berdych had only won once in 10 meetings against Davydenko, but he got off to the perfect start, breaking twice in the first set as errors plagued the Russian's game.
Both players struggled to make inroads in the second set as the first 10 games went with serve.
Davydenko had a chance to take the initiative at 5-4 up, but Berdych battled back to save two break points. He then took that momentum into the next game where he finally managed a breakthrough courtesy of a couple of Davydenko mistakes.
However, in what would be of some concern for the Czech, he failed to serve out the match, and fell short again in the tie-break having given up a 5-2 lead.
But Berdych eventually found some composure to seal the match on his opponent's serve, and despite the tense finish, was happy enough to pull one back on his rival.
"If somebody would say that he doesn't care [about the record] it's not true," he said. "I know the situation against him and I've played many tough matches, especially the last two or three, they were very close.
But the last three matches are 2-1 for me.
"So if I look at it this way then I'm 2-1 up and I'll take it forward from there.
"He's a really tough opponent, he's not going to give you a single point just like that and that's what he was trying to do all match, and that's why I'm even more happy," he added.
Meanwhile, Ernests Gulbis became the latest seed to bow out of the tournament after Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky upset the Latvian 6-3, 5-7, 6-1.
However, there was no such trouble for former world No.7 Richard Gasquet, who came back from 5-2 down in the second set against Sergei Bubka to prevail 6-2, 7-5 on centre court.
After a drop in form and a bad run with injury, the Frenchman has climbed his way back to No.28 in the rankings. And the 24-year-old is adamant he can continue his fine form and win a place in the top 10 once again.
"I'm trying," Gasquet said. "I'm trying to play more aggressive, to serve better, to feel better. "I try my best to come back as the best player in the world. I stopped a lot in 2009. I played a big year last year.
"To come back, it's very hard. I need time. I'm working a lot to do it."
This article was originally published by www.7days.ae.
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