Del Potro routs Berdych in Rotterdam semi-final

Feb 18, 2012, 15:05 GMT

Rotterdam, Netherlands - Argentine Juan Del Potro reached his first final since Vienna last season with a dominating 6-3, 6-1 thrashing of second seed Tomas Berdych at the ABN-AMRO World Tennis on Saturday.

The world number 10 will await a Sunday opponent as top seed Roger Federer faces Russian veteran Nikolay Davydenko for the 19th times, with the Swiss leading that series by an overwhelming 16-2 margin.

Del Potro dominated against Berdych, who had taken a clean 8-0 record indoors into the contest at the Ahoy stadium. Bedych, ranked seventh, came to Rotterdam with the Montpellier trophy in hand from earlier in the month.

But there was no stopping Del Potro, who was taken to three sets in the first round by Michael Llodra but who has won the rest of his contests in quick straight sets.

'Berdych is tough, with a big serve,' said Del Potro. 'I had to stay in control against him. His game is aggressive like mine, but I played better than him today.'

The Argentine was pleased with a pair of matches over the past 24 hours in which he has lost a total of five games.

'I played almost perfect, I was focused all the time on trying to break and on hitting my forehand,

I've been improving match by match, but I need to play better in the final if I'm going to win this tournament. That's been the goal this week.

'I still have a lot of work do to, I'm trying to work every day,' said the South American who beat Federer for the 2009 US Open title. 'Hopefully I can fight again for number one.'

Del Potro broke in the first game and won seven games straight from midway through the first until Berdych finally registered to trail 1-5 in the second.

Two games more was all it took for Del Potro to fire his ninth ace on match point to advance in an hour and a quarter of one-way tennis.