Tomas Berdych, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez advance to Shenzhen Open final

Top seed and world No. 5 Tomas Berdych overcame third seed Tommy Robredo on Sunday after a 26-hour rain delay, joining Garcia-Lopez in the final of ATP Shenzhen open. He would eventually secure a spot in his fourth ATP World Tour final of the year, where he will seek his first title since Stockholm 2014.

Berdych was leading Robredo 6-1, 3-3, deuce, when rain stopped play after 56 minutes of action. Many years ago I played a final on a Monday and it was very similar to today.

Berdych then claimed a second break of the match to lead 2-1 in the second set and another to stand on the brink of victory at 5-2, then although the favourite made hard work of serving for the match he got the job done after fending off three break points. The key factor here was Berdych being able to control the tough moments; even he only converted one out of his two break point opportunities, but saving the four break points on his own serve became the crucial factor from letting Robredo make a comeback in the match.

Kyrgios next takes on Croatian giant Ivo Karlovic, who fired 18 aces to beat Georgia’s Nikoloz Basilashvili 7-5, 4-6, 6-3.

His next engagement is a final-four meeting with 2014 US Open victor Marin Cilic, who needed a little over an hour and half to dispatch Chung Hyeon of South Korea 7-6 (8/6) 6-4.

Garcia-Lopez should be relatively fresh for the semi-final after he was given a quarter-final walkover when Adrian Mannarino pulled out of the match due to a leg injury.