Over the past few seasons Tomas Berdych has made a home for himself within the top ten of the world rankings.
While he may not be the most fluent of players on the circuit, his trademark battling quality saw him pick up a number of positive results throughout the most recent campaign.
The year began in winning fashion for Berdych as he lifted the Hopman Cup for the Czech Republic with Petra Kvitova.
That took him into the Australian Open, where he reached the quarter-finals before being knocked out by Spain's Rafael Nadal. However, the real talking point for Berdych in that tournament came against Nadal's fellow countryman Nicolas Almagro a round earlier.
Berdych accused Almagro of deliberately trying to hit him with the ball during a point and as a result he refused to shake hands at the end. That resulted in Berdych being booed by the crowd at the end of the match.
This was followed by the seventh ATP title of his career in Montpellier when he saw off the challenge of Gael Monfils 6-2 4-6 6-3 in the final.
That success was followed by disappointing performances at the BNP Paribas Open and the Sony Ericsson Open, to Almagro and Grigor Dimitrov respectively.
He fared slightly better on clay, reaching the final of the Madrid Open before eventually slumping to a defeat against Roger Federer. He also reached the semi-finals of the Monte Carlo Masters courtesy of a victory over Andy Murray.
Those tournaments led to the French Open, where Berdych was defeated by Juan Martin del Potro in round four.
Defeat to Del Potro set Berdych off on a downward spiral and he was dismissed from the first round of both Wimbledon and the Olympic Games in London at the same venue.
Berdych rediscovered his winning touch leading up to the US Open though. He reached the final of Winston-Salem Open, before he lost out to America's John Isner over three sets.
The 27-year-old then impressed even further at Flushing Meadows, prevailing against Federer in the quarter-finals. That resulted in him advancing through to his first ever semi-final at the US Open. His luck ended there though as Murray won through in four sets.
His ranking of number six saw him qualify for the ATP World Tour Finals at London's O2 Arena in November, but he was unable to advance from a group that included Novak Djokovic, Murray and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
No doubt Berdych will be aiming for more of the same during the next campaign.
Liam Apicella
