By Martyn Herman
LONDON (Reuters) - Tomas Berdych was not in the best of moods after losing to Frenchman Gilles Simon at Wimbledon on Monday so the journalist who asked him whether he was looking forward to his quarter-final was playing with fire.
The burly Czech went out with a whimper in the fourth round, 6-3 6-3 6-2 in one hour 52 minutes, but the news had obviously not reached one member of the world's media.
"How do you feel after that match? Do you feel in good shape going into the quarter-finals?" was the opening question at the news conference.
"Sorry? Excuse me?" former Wimbledon runner-up Berdych replied.
The question was repeated. "Do you feel your form is good going into the quarter-finals?", at which point the moderator stepped in before things turned really ugly.
"Does he know right or is he trying to make fun of me?" the stone-faced sixth seed enquired before questions turned to his last 16 exit, the same as at the French Open.
"Definitely it was not my day, not the day I would like to be on the court and perform on the court like that," he said.