Tomas Berdych and Conquering the Big Four

At the ATP World Tour Finale in London on Monday, amid eight blue spotlights dancing on the court, orchestrated clapping, and lots of smoke, Tomas Berdych will appear from the tunnel. The Czech has fought his way through to tennis' extravagant year-end tournament for the fifth straight year.

That streak seems more remarkable when you consider the golden generation of players he calls his contemporaries. Before first-time winner Marin Cilic was crowned at the U.S. Open this year, the Big Four—Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Andy Murray—had won 36 of the last 38 Grand Slams, starting from the 2005 French Open. Together they've dominated every surface and the world rankings. This will be the eleventh consecutive year that the year-end No. 1 ranking will go to one of Federer, Djokovic, or Nadal—something no other group of players has done since the system started in 1973. But while tennis history was being rewritten—Federer chased down Pete Sampras' Slam record, Nadal won nine French Opens, Murray got the monkey off his back—there are few players who stayed as close to the pack as Berdych has.

This year will also be Berdych's fifth in a row to finish in the top-10 world rankings. Just in the nick of time, too. In the last week of the regular season, he got that much awaited email from the ATP: he'd made it again to the neon lights of the O2 arena. And he knows why it's so special to be in this elite eight.

"No matter how many times you make that, it's probably never going to be, you know, like a routine thing… especially in this era of tennis when you have the guys like, you know, all of them, and then so basically you kind of fight for only four spots," Berdych said last week in Paris. "So it's not easy. Really, what I really like especially this year, it's that, you know, I made it like myself."

And now that he has, Berdych is grouped in the top half along with Djokovic, Stan Wawrinka. and Cilic. That means he is fighting for the second spot out of the group. World No. 1 Djokovic hasn't lost an indoor match since he was at this tournament in 2012—27 straight wins. And he's hoping he can lift the trophy here for the third year in a row.

But there's time before Berdych tries to tame that beast. He starts his tournament against Wawrinka, the Swiss who finally snapped the streak of 16 consecutive Grand Slam titles by the Big Four at the Australian Open this year. His breakthrough at 28, and Cilic's win at the U.S. Open in September, further highlight the tough spot Berdych is in: Wawrinka and Cilic were lumped together with Berdych in that same group of perpetual runners up—but Berdych has yet to rise from the pack.

This year Berdych has won two tournaments, entered the final in two others, regained his career-best No. 5 ranking, and lost in the quarters and semis at two Slams to eventual champions; a story far too familiar in the last decade for him. He has a powerful serve, hits clean on both the flanks, and doesn't let his height get in the way of his footwork, especially on grass—his most successful surface—where he beat both Federer and Djokovic at Wimbledon 2010. But with Berdych, it's always been about being good and not good enough. At 29, an age that classifies him as a veteran in the tennis world, the odds of his Slam success are only getting worse. But perhaps in London, at the ATP World Tour Finale, Berdych can find a second wind, build momentum, and declare that in 2015 he will be the player who slays the Big Four to win a Grand Slam event. If not, his run on the outside looking in is still worth celebrating.