Juan Monaco would consider himself as a tremendously unlucky today, as he put in quite possibly one of the greatest performance seen from him. He did still come out on the wrong side of a spirited performance from Tomas Berdych who continued to play stunning tennis as he did in the US Open recently. He came out on top in just under four hours smashing 42 winners and firing 5 aces en route to his win. The Czech won the marathon match 6-1,4-6,1-6,6-4,6-4.

It was quite the brilliant start from the Czech who broke early to take a 2-0 lead. Monaco had a brief fight back took the score back to 2-1, that however turned out to be the only game that the Argentine could win as Berdych ran ragged. The US Open semifinalist has kicked off from where he left and is continuing to excel here on the red dirt. The Argentine was overwhelmed and needed to respond as early as possible.

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The resurgent Argentine took a 2-0 advantage early, but the hard hitting Czech once again came back to break and reduce the deficit to one. More drama followed as we witnessed something that is generally seen in the Women's game consecutive breaks of serve with the Argentine getting more of them. Monaco took the set 6-4 in the end.

The Czech just couldn't live with the Argentine in the third set as Monaco ran ragged this time. It was unbelievable play from the clay court specialist as he took the set 6-1. Monaco smashed 5 winners and made just 6 unforced errors in the set.

The fourth set was a complete turn around, the Argentine after leading 4-2 at one point was pegged back as the Czech won 4 games to take the set 6-4. This was an amazing turn around after Monaco had annihilated Berdych in the previous set.

The fifth was an intriguing contest that swung one way then the other. The Argentine suddenly started to fade away allowing the Czech to continue what he started in the fourth set. He won eight straight games and took a 4-0 lead. Just when one thought it was over, the Argentine drew some confidence from the massive home support and took back a break. Soon he went on to 5-4 with him on serve, but in the all important game, Monaco was listless as the Czech closed out the match soon taking the set 6-4.