Berdych beats Soderling in Key Biscayne semis

Tomas Berdych continues his amazing run through the Miami draw, crushing Robin Soderling on Friday night. Berdych will play for the title on Sunday against Andy Roddick.

After Marcos Baghdatis scored what he called his best win ever over Roger Federer at the Indian Wells Masters earlier this month, the Cypriot promptly lost in the next round to clay-court specialist Tommy Robredo.

Tomas Berdych apparently has far grander ideas. Berdych, who stunned Roger Federer in the fourth round of the Sony Ericsson Open, followed up the big victory by staging an improbable comeback against Fernando Verdasco in the quarterfinals.

The 24-year-old Czech looked even better on Friday night, erasing Robin Soderling 6-2, 6-2 in a 68-minute semifinal rout. Soderling got a look at one break point in the opening game of the match, but he missed the chance and never saw another break point the entire rest of the way.

Berdych seized the momentum with a love service break for 4-2 and right then and there it was all but over. Soderling completely disappeared and he donated a second straight love service game at 2-5. The seventh-ranked Swede fought off two break points at 0-1 in the second and another three at 1-2, but his dangerous living soon caught up with him in the sixth game of the set.

A forehand error from Soderling gave Berdych a 4-2 advantage and Miami's No. 5 seed collapsed thereafter. Berdych held for 5-2 without any trouble and clinched the convincing victory with his fourth scalp of the Soderling serve, converting his first match point courtesy of his opponent's 31st unforced error.

Berdych fired almost twice as many winners as Soderling (17-10) despite making twice as few unforced errors (15 to 31). The world No. 20 also abused Soderling's second serve, winning 73 percent of those points.

Next up for Berdych in Sunday's title match is Andy Roddick, who upset Rafael Nadal in Friday's first semifinal.