Players Under the Microscope / Editor / 24 April 2007 /

At just 21 Tomas Berdych is one of the young guns of world tennis. He is in the same bunch as Rafael Nadal, Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic - a group of exciting, talented players who are set to follow in world No 1 Roger Federer's footsteps.

The ice hockey fan from Valasske Mezirici in the Czech Republic is even taking a leaf out of Federer's book this week by taking a short break, his second this month.

The first breather came after tackling the opening two Masters events at Indian Wells and Miami.

Now he is taking this week off to catch his breath after the Monte Carlo Masters and before he targets the Hamburg and Rome events and the World Team Cup in the countdown to the highlight of the claycourt season, the French Open in Paris at the end of next month.

How is he spending his week? Well for a start he went to watch his girlfriend Lucie Safarova help the Czech Republic to a 5-0 over Slovakia in Bratislava in the Federation Cup on Sunday.

But next week he will be back in the swing when he tackles the BMW Open in Munich.

Berdych, with two titles already under his belt, would have hoped to have made a slightly bigger impact so far this season.

Last week he reached the semi-finals in Monte Carlo only to be swamped by Nadal 6-0 7-5. But at least a place in the last four was a big improvement on his early exits in Indian Wells (last 64) and Miami (last 32).

Back in January he reached the quarter-finals of the Sydney International before losing to Jurgen Melzer in straight sets.

But that quarter in Sydney and the semi in Monte Carlo are slim pickings - and not what he was hoping for.

It belies his early promise, considering that he won his first ATP title in Palermo in 2004 and took the Paris Masters in 2005, beating top 20 players of the quality of Juan Carlos Ferrero and Radek Stepanek on the way before toppling Ivan Ljubicic in a five-set final.

Last year he appeared in the finals of the Halle and Mumbai tournaments but couldn't get his hands on the trophy at either event.

Even so he managed to break into the world's top 10 for the first time - at No 10 last October.

His form on clay throughout 2006 produced a 14-7 win/loss record (compared to 23- 14 on his favourite hard court surface, 7-2 on grass and 4-1 on carpet).

Coached by former ATP player Jaroslav Navratil, he has a strong forehand and a big serve - as you would expect from someone who, like his coach, stands 6ft 5in tall.

Now in his fifth year on the pro circuit, he will be looking to make his mark at one of the majors. Last year he reached the fourth round of all the Grand Slams bar the Australian Open.

Berdych is trading at 120 with Betfair to win the French Open with Nadal the 1.78 favourite and Federer on offer at 3.3 to break his Roland Garros duck.

Djokovic can be backed at 22 with Scottish starlet Murray available at 80.

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