Maybe no one’s paying attention, but Novak’s doing it again.

In 2011, he started off on a streak that started to take off once Djokovic won Indian Wells having won the Australian Open and Dubai prior to that.  Indeed, Djokovic’s win streak extends to last year’s year-end championship in London where he won all three round robin matches then the two matches to win the title.

Tomas Berdych has shown great form in back to back finals, but has finished bridesmaid twice, once to Tsonga in Marseille, and once again to Djokovic.

By all accounts, Djokovic had something of a lousy summer.  He lost to Nadal in the finals of the French Open which wasn’t all that bad especially since it was his first French final.  Then, he lost in the semis to Roger Federer after having won the title the year before.  Finally, he was unable to win a medal at the London Olympics losing to Murray and del Potro.  OK, so that’s not exactly horrible.  Most players would consider that a successful outing.

Throughout it all, Djokovic continued to keep his level high and this became evident once he returned to Toronto and won the title and had a very solid fall including a win at London.

Djokovic started 2013 as he started 2011 and 2012, by winning the Australian Open.

Berdych, for his part, has been playing some of his best tennis.  He used to have lapses in his play due to his flatter style.  But he’s become a lot steadier, a lot more sure of himself.  He can stay in long rallies, and it’s harder to drive him to the edges because he hits hook shots so well.

But Djokovic just seemed too tough.  Djokovic can hit with the hardest hitters in the game. Gonzalez was probably the last huge hitter (Verdasco having sunk quite a bit) that couldn’t quite break through the top.  The hard hitters are mostly in the top ten with Berdych and Tsonga joining Federer.  Djokovic can hit with them all.  Sometimes his ability to deal with pace is really underrated.

Consider Dmitry Tursunov, a Russian player that was in the top 20 about 5 years ago.  He’s been missing in action for some number of years, but he’s come back lately, and in the past two weeks, he’s had to face Tomas Berdych.  Both times, Berdych has decimated Tursunov.  One hard hit, and Tursunov either can’t reach the ball or he nets the shot because he doesn’t reach it in time.  Those same shots come back from Djokovic with authority.  It goes to show how Djokovic is at another level.  Berdych is trying to keep up, but it’s tough.

Berdych did get to an early break, but you knew it was going to be tough if Berdych didn’t get more first serves in.  When a second serve comes in, Djokovic starts the point even, which usually means he starts ahead.  Djokovic on an even rally is likely to win.  Occasionally, Berdych got ahead in a point and powered shot after shot to win a point, but Djokovic still made him run 3-4 shots to win the point.  Against Tursunov, Berdych would only have needed one.

Berdych was broken back, then broken again to lose the first set, and Djokovic was just too solid in the second set breaking late to take the set.

Despite two consecutive losses, Berdych has to be happy with consistently good play.  Consider Tsonga, who won Marseille, then lost in the opening round at Dubai.

The only down side is that Berdych has been playing two weeks in a row, and there’s Indian Wells and Miami back to back.  The only good news is that play doesn’t usually begin until Wednesday, and top seeds get byes, so players can get a week off before playing their first match.  Both Indian Wells and Miami are played over a week and a half, the only two Masters 1000 to be structured this way.