Tomas Berdych was in a sour mood after missing his chance to make his first Australian Open final as Andy Murray charged on in the tournament on Thursday.
The Czech seventh seed, who went in with a 6-4 winning record over the Scot and had won their last two meetings, could not reproduce his heroics from his previous round upset of Rafael Nadal and bowed out in a fusilade of errors.
While Berdych did not serve one double fault against Nadal, he spluttered with six in his semi-final with Murray. He served more double-faults than aces.
Yet again the Czech came up short at the semi-final stage after losing to eventual champion Stan Wawrinka in four tight sets at last year’s Australian Open.
“I’m really not happy and not really in a good mood. I’m very disappointed to lose this match,” Berdych said.
“It was a big match. But I just need to come back stronger and get myself better for it, and that’s it.”
According to Berdych the difference against Murray was his poor second set after taking the marathon opening set in a tiebreaker.
“I had one bad set for the second set, and that’s it. I was just trying to get my chances, trying to fight for it, but it was not enough and I’m very disappointed with it.
“I handled better the first set. He just took advantage of me not having a great second set, and that’s it.”
Berdych brushed aside talk of ill-feeling with the Scot over the Czech’s decision to employ former Murray team member Dani Vallverdu as his new coach.
“No. It was a big match. That’s how it is, I mean, when you’re playing Andy Murray for a semi-final of a slam what else do you need to get more attention?” he said.
“If you start to work with someone new, probably there would be talk around it. But really it’s not important at all. It’s how it is now. I mean, that’s it.”