Rafael Nadal beats Tomas Berdych to take second Wimbledon title

Reporting from Wimbledon, England — Rafael Nadal leapt into a winning backhand during a point in the second set and hit the tennis ball with such force that dust swirled when the ball landed.

On a Centre Court more brown than green after two weeks without rain, and with 15,000 fans cheering early and late for Nadal, the 24-year-old Spaniard won his second Wimbledon title and eighth career major championship Sunday by beating 12th-seeded Tomas Berdych, 6-3, 7-5, 6-4 in a 2-hour, 13-minute men’s final.

Nadal, 24, had just enough of those powerful winning, dirt-eating groundstrokes to keep Berdych at bay.

And upon hitting a scrumptious crosscourt forehand winner on his first match point, one that left Berdych at a standstill, Nadal yelled and when the ball landed out of Berdych’s reach, Nadal fell to the ground.

He didn’t stay there long, though. Nadal popped up quickly and did a somersault, a new addition to his celebration repertoire.

“I didn’t think about that,” Nadal said. “That was my reaction at that moment.”

Berdych, a 24-year-old from the Czech Republic, told the crowd, “He is so good. He deserves to win today,” and the fans offered sympathetic laughter.

The Czech will move to No. 8 in the computer rankings. Nadal will stay where he was, at No. 1.

“To have this trophy in my hands is more than I dream,” said Nadal, who had won the 2008 title here but missed last year’s tournament because of knee tendinitis.

“For sure, it was not an easy year for me [last year],” Nadal said. “To be back at my favorite tournament of the world and play well another time, and not only play well but to finish with the trophy is amazing for me,” Nadal said.

This is the second time Nadal has won both the French Open and Wimbledon back to back, but missing from his collection of major titles is a U.S. Open. “For sure, the U.S. Open is going to be one of my goals for the rest of my career,” Nadal said.

Among the Spanish sportsmen that Nadal cited as making his country proud (the Spanish soccer team, defending Tour de France winner Alberto Contador and motorcyclist Jorge Lorenzo) was Lakers center Pau Gasol. “To have unbelievable sportsmen like Pau … is very very good for our country,” he said.

Nadal was so dominant that, midway through the second set, many of the 15,000 fans on Centre Court switched allegiances.

Instead of cheering wildly for Nadal, waving scarves in the hues of the Spanish flag and yelling, “I love you Rafa,” in voices both male and female, the tenor changed.

It’s what happens when a blowout gets started. The spectators were longing to see drama. Nadal had no such interests.

Nadal is one month past his 24th birthday, and by that age, Roger Federer had won six major titles. Federer holds the record for most career Grand Slams, 16, and the biggest surprise of Wimbledon was that it was Berdych who came to the finals to compete against the second-seeded and top-ranked Nadal instead of six-time champion Federer.

But after upsetting top-seeded Federer and third-seeded Novak Djokovic, Berdych seemed unable to find the persuasive groundstrokes that had powered him to those upsets.

His game against Nadal was passive, as if he hoped somehow that Nadal might crack.

But Berdych never played well enough to pressure Nadal into cracking.

After a feeling-out process (the server only lost one point in the first three games), Nadal pounced.

In the seventh game, Nadal’s aggressive ground play put Berdych on his heels and in a 0-40 hole. Berdych saved one break point when Nadal knocked a forehand into the net, but on the second, Nadal jumped into his winning shot, a backhand winner that caused the crowd to go, “Oooh.”

Nadal quickly consolidated the break by holding serve at love with the last point in that eighth game, a booming forehand that gave him a 5-3 lead. And Nadal didn’t even need to face the pressure of serving out the set. He got a second break with a bouncy forehand winner. After it landed, Nadal jumped up and down as if he were on a pogo stick. The first set took only 34 minutes.

Berdych didn’t give up hope immediately.

In the first game of the second, Berdych earned his first break point, courtesy of a couple of Nadal forehand errors. Nadal saved with a forehand but then gave Berdych a second one with a double fault and saved it with a nasty second serve that curved away from Berdych.

A third break point came with another forehand error. Nadal seemed bothered by gusting winds. He served a second double fault too, but after nearly 10 minutes, Nadal held serve for a 1-0 lead.

And the set stayed on that even pace until the 12th game. There wasn’t another break point, and then suddenly Berdych began making wild errors — three on forehands, including a final forehand wide that gave Nadal the set, 7-5.

Early in the third set, in the third game, Berdych got another break point, but he gave it away with a forehand into the net.

Once again, the set settled into a numbing series of service holds until the final game of the third set. Nadal pounced with the help of a stunning running forehand up the line to put Berdych down 0-30.

diane.pucin@latimes.com