Jury is Out on Tomas Berdych: We Have Had Enough of You

Tomas Berdych has been very annoying this year. In fact, he has been annoying throughout his career.

True tennis fans cannot seem to like him, because every time anybody begins to think "okay, this is his time" he goes on to disappear into the mist and out of the tennis circles.

In his first full year on the ATP tour he shocked the world by defeating the then-No. 1 seed Roger Federer at the 2004 Athens Olympics. He followed that up with a strong showing at the US Open where he managed to go through to the fourth round, where he lost to Tommy Haas. After that he won his first ATP title in Palermo, Italy on clay.

So in the next year we would see this guy more frequently. However, in 2005 his year was pretty much insignificant having just a final appearance and a couple of semifinals in smaller tournaments until he won his first and only to date ATP Masters Series title beating four top 10 seeds along the way.

Again, he showed he could mix in with the big boys, and that his game is big enough to challenge everybody. Was this the new staple for the ATP? Heavy hitting tall guys with a huge serve? Well...no.

Although in 2006 he made it to the fourth round of three out the four majors (French, US Opens, Wimbledon), he again failed to show his consistency and true talent to the tennis world. He then reached two tournament finals losing them both.

In 2007 it was business as usual; going on a spree of early exits and then showing his talent by going deep into tournaments on successive occasions. He had a very good clay season but ended up losing in the first round of the French. He then won on the grass at Halle and made his finest appearance at a grand slam by reaching the quarterfinals at Wimbledon where he lost to Nadal.

The 2008 and 2009 seasons were basically the same. Showing signs of a great and surprisingly agile player for his size, yet then failing at the first hurdle. He has shown throughout his career that he can play well on all surfaces. He has titles on all four surfaces (including carpet) something that not even Nadal can boast.

This year, however, he showed that big guys like him can be dangerous, fast and reliable. From February until the Canadian Masters in August he had been providing solid results, highlighted by the semi-final run at the French Open and the final run at Wimbledon, where he beat both Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic.

Finally, he had become the player we all knew he could. Being consistent and beating the top guys regularly.

The tennis pundits were starting to praise him. "The Berdych of old has left...the voices in Berdych's head have been banished." But then the inevitable happened.

Since his loss to Roger Federer in the quarters of the Canadian Masters, the Czech has decided that he does not know how to play tennis anymore. Poor results have robbed him of the opportunity to become a heavyweight, where people would start to fear him.

This week he was suppose to be one of the favorites to lift the title in Basel, however he tamely lost to an unknown called Kamke 6-4 6-1.

As he stands now, he may fail to reach the WTF in London, and the funny thing is that we no longer care, because at the moment he does not seem to care either.