Was Tomas Berdych a better player than any of the next-gens?

When one thinks of Tomas Berdych, it is hard to picture his name without memories of his matches surfacing to your memory. It might be confusing to remember exactly which matches, but one thing is for certain: you know he was Mr Quarterfinals- and he seemed to always have to go through the big 4 in their prime.

Like the 2011 Australian Open quarterfinals, where he drew prime Novak Djokovic, but lost in 3 brave sets. How about the 2012 Australian Open quarterfinals, where he had to play Rafael Nadal. Despite winning the first off Nadal, who was 10 years younger than he currently is, Berdych lost the match in 4 sets.

The very next year? The 2013 Australian Open quarterfinals, where he took a set off Novak Djokovic, but still lost in 4.

2014? Tomas Berdych made the 2014 Australian Open quarterfinals,  this time beating David Ferrer in 4 sets, but was taken down in the semifinals by none other than Stan Wawrinka, who was redlining and was playing out of his mind.

2015? Berdych made the 2015 Australian Open quarterfinals, finally beating Nadal, who was arguably, having the worst season of his life. He won in 3 comfortable sets, winning the first set 6-2, and bagelling Nadal in the second set.

His semifinal opponent? Andy Murray. Despite another gallant effort to take a set of Murray, he eventually lost in 4 sets.

2016?

Tomas Berdych made now 6  straight Australian Open quarterfinals, but was demolished in 3 sets by none other than Roger Federer!

2017?? Unfortunately as the 10th seed, he drew this really good 17th seed. His name is Roger Federer, I’m not sure if you’ve heard of him. This was a 3rd round, where at this open Roger Federer won his first major in almost 5 years.

2018? Same deal, a loss to Roger Federer in the quarterfinals of the 2018 Australian Open.

Unbelievably, prior to his run of 6 consecutive Australian Open quarterfinals, Berdych drew Federer in the 4th round of the 2009 Australian Open. Berydch was 2 sets to love up against 2009 Federer, but unfortunately lost in 5.

Tomas Berdych, in 10 straight years, lost to nobody except the big 4 (and 2014 Wawrinka) at the Australian Open.

Tomas Berdych’s unrivalled consistency at the Australian Open, achieving 6 straight major quarterfinals, begs the question about the current nextgen.

Was Tomas Berdych a far far superior player to any of the nextgen players, like Zverev, Tsitispas and Medvedev, who have achieved better career high rankings than Tomas Berdych?

Tomas Berdcyh had a long and consistently successful career, which started with his win at the 2005 Paris Masters. in total, he made  44 Master 1000 quarterfinals.

But if 2011 Tomas Berdych had to play the current next gen top 5, would they even win in a quartefinal?