Berdych pockets $250,000 with Tie Break Tens win
Tomas Berdych is $250,000 richer, which is probably small change to him anyway, after beating Rafael Nadal in the final of the Tie Break Tens in Melbourne.
The man from the Czech Republic beat Nadal 10-5 to walk away with the winner-takes-all prize of $250,000.
It was all in a day’s work for Berdych as he beat in-form Australian Nick Kyrgios 10-8 in his quarter-final clash a bit earlier in the day before seeing off Milos Raonic 11-9 in the semi-finals.
World No 1 Nadal, meanwhile, overcame Lucas Pouille 10-1 and Australian icon Lleyton Hewitt 13-11 in his two matches to reach the final.
The exhibition event, where all matches are the first to 10 points, included seven of the world’s best players as well as former Wimbledon winner Hewitt, who upset Novak Djokovic in their opening clash.
Earlier Stan Wawrinka pulled out of the tournament due to a knee injury and was replaced by Canadian Raonic.
Previous winners of the Tie Break Tens are Kyle Edmund (2015 London), Dominic Thiem (2016 Vienna) and Grigor Dimitrov (2017 Madrid)
Quarter-finals
Lleyton Hewitt 10-6 Novak Djokovic
Lucas Pouille 1-10 Rafael Nadal
Tomas Berdych 10-8 Nick Kyrgios
Milos Raonic 10-7 Dominic Thiem
Semi-finals
Lleyton Hewitt 11-13 Rafael Nadal
Tomas Berdych 11-9 Milos Raonic
Final
Rafael Nadal 5-10 Tomas Berdych
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