Sport is full of "What if..." stories, athletes who seemed to have the world at their feet and, for some reason, failed to deliver. A few months back we wrote a similar article referring to Richard Gasquet, who was seemingly on the road to tennis history but stalled on the way. But many junior number ones never even made it that far, Todd Reid, Kristian Pless and Jonathan Eysserric to name but a few.
Tomas Berdych, until recently, seemed to be spear heading into that damned group of players. At the age of 18, the Czech player lifted his first ATP title in Palermo and then really made a name for himself when he defeated Roger Federer at the Olympic Games in Athens (2004). He went on to reach the 4th round at the US Open (lost to Haas) and finished the season in the top 50.
One year later his progression kept on growing at an alarming rate when he won his first Masters Series title in Paris, defeating the likes of Coria, Ferrero and Ljubicic on his way.
At 20 he had cemented a place in the top 10 and had managed to reach the 4th round at three grand slams (all except Australia). At this rate it seemed only a matter of time before he cracked the top 5 and had a grand slam in his trophy cabinet.
But for the next few years it just didn't seem to happen for Berdych. Was he complacent? Had the other players raised the bar? It's difficult to establish what really happened, but tennis fans had become accustomed to seeing Berdych as an average fourth round tennis player.
2010 has been his year though. At the ripe age of 25, Tomas Berdych has finally fulfilled his potential and really come of age. He plays fearless flat hitting tennis, where merely passing the ball over the net is not an option, every shot has to be a winner. A new breed of tennis led by the likes of Soderling and Tsonga.
This hard hitting has enabled him to reach the semi finals of Roland Garros where he fell to Soderling in five gruelling sets of ball blasting tennis. And now at Wimbledon, on his favourite surface, he has managed not only to beat Federer in his own backyard (Centre Court can be described as that) but completely dominate the Swiss from the back of the court.
Now Berdych faces Djokovic as his penultimate obstacle in his quest for glory. Whatever the outcome, it seems the big boys have a new name to look out for on tour.
