Tomas Berdych: Can He Make It to the Top Five in the Rankings?

Top-seeded Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic has advanced to the semifinals of this week's ATP World Tour event held in Montpellier, France. This continues one of the best starts to a season in his career.

Can he keep up the pace and challenge for a career-high spot in the rankings?

Berdych is coming off a run to the quarterfinals at the year's first Grand Slam, the Australian Open, where he pushed world No. 2 Rafael Nadal in the round of eight before losing in four tough sets.

Overall though, Australia was successful for Berdych, who before the main event in Melbourne was part of the Hopman Cup-winning team with countrywoman Petra Kvitova. Berdych went undefeated in singles play in that event, winning all four of his matches.

Now, his hot start to the year continues in France, where he's the top seed in the tournament and at this point, has a solid chance to take home the title. Berdych is one of the best players in the men's game when it comes to playing under fast conditions. He's won tournaments on grass, carpet and hard courts—indoors and out.

While those conditions suit his powerful game, Berdych has also shown the patience necessary to succeed on clay courts, winning the first tournament of his career on the dirt, as well as reaching he semifinals of the French Open in 2010.

That run to the semifinals in Paris was followed by the biggest Grand Slam achievement of his career a few weeks later, when he made it to the finals of Wimbledon, defeating none other than six-time Wimby champion Roger Federer along the way.

Berdych is in the shortlist of players expected to win one of the game's biggest events at some point in their career, but hasn't met those expectations yet. At this point in the year, though, he looks dangerous and if he continues to play like this, he could surpass his career-high ranking of No. 6.

Winning a Grand Slam would be a much tougher task, but form like this could make that goal a possibility.