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Marcos Baghdatis Profile

January 20, 2012 by · Comments Off on Marcos Baghdatis Profile 

Marcos Baghdatis Profile, Marcos Baghdatis (born 17 June 1985 in Limassol) is a Cypriot professional tennis player. He was the runner-up at the 2006 Australian Open and a semifinalist at the 2006 Wimbledon Championships and reached a career-high ATP ranking of no. 8 in August 2006.
Marcos Baghdatis is the son of a Lebanese father, Christos, who migrated to Cyprus and a Greek Cypriot mother.

Baghdatis began playing tennis at age five with his father and brothers. He enjoys playing and watching football and is a supporter of Apollon Limassol in Cyprus. He trained at the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy in Paris on an Olympic Solidarity Youth Development Programme Scholarship since the age of 13 and learned to speak French.

On January 28, 2006, Baghdatis received an exemption from the otherwise mandatory Greek Cypriot national service so that he could concentrate instead on playing tennis.

He received the 2005 Cyprus Male Athlete of the Year award.

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Baghdatis became the ITF World Junior Tennis Champion in 2003 and joined the ATP professional tour later that year.

Baghdatis performed moderately throughout most of 2004. He picked up his form later in that year.

At the US Open, Baghdatis played for the first time in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament. He defeated Olivier Mutis in a first-round match 2-6, 6-2, 6-1, 7-5. He was one of only two players who won a set from eventual champion Roger Federer (the other being Andre Agassi). Baghdatis then finished the year with two Challenger tournament titles, in which he defeated many higher-ranked opponents.

Baghdatis’s 2005 season began with a first-round loss in the Chennai Open.

In his next tournament, the Australian Open, as a qualifier, Baghdatis defeated then-top-20 player Ivan Ljubi??i?‡ in the second round and had a straight sets victory over another top-20 player, Tommy Robredo, in the third round, before losing to Roger Federer in the fourth round.

Baghdatis suffered an elbow injury right after the Australian Open and was out of the professional tour until late April, when he entered a clay court tournament, the Estoril Open in Portugal. He held two match points in his first-round match against a resurging Juan Carlos Ferrero, but failed to convert them into a win.

Baghdatis kept playing Challengers and qualifying for upper-tier ATP events for the rest of 2005 and found good form towards the end of the year. As a qualifier, he reached the final of the ATP tournament at Basel, defeating former world no. 2 Tommy Haas, world no. 40 José Acasuso, and the eventual 2005 Masters Cup champion David Nalbandian. But he lost the final to Chilean Fernando Gonz?lez 7-6, 4-6, 5-7, 4-6. Although he was not the first qualifier to reach an ATP tour event final, he was the first player from Cyprus to do so.

Baghdatis entered the Australian Open as an unseeded player, under the coaching of Guillaume Peyre, and produced an unexpected four-set 6-4, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory over second-seed and world No. 3 Andy Roddick in the fourth round. He then defeated the seventh seed Croat Ivan Ljubi??i?‡ in the quarterfinals 6-4, 6-2, 4-6, 3-6, 6-3. In the semifinals, he came back from two sets down to defeat fourth seed Argentine David Nalbandian 3-6, 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4. The vocal support he enjoyed from his local fans (consisting mostly of members of Melbourne’s large Greek Australian community) throughout the tournament was considered one of the highlights of the tournament. In the final, Baghdatis started strongly (being a set and a break up with a chance to double break), but eventually lost to world no. 1 Roger Federer 5-7, 7-5, 6-0, 6-2.
In the 2012 Australian Open held in January, Bhagdatis lost a match to Stanislas Wawrinka. During a break between sets he broke four of his tennis rackets to vent frustration on losing a set.

Marcos Baghdatis Racket

January 20, 2012 by · Comments Off on Marcos Baghdatis Racket 

Marcos Baghdatis RacketMarcos Baghdatis Racket, Super-cool Swiss Roger Federer on Friday laughed off the racquet-smashing antics of Marcos Baghdatis but gave a reminder that he was not always the perfect gentleman on court.

Cypriot Baghdatis was fined for an extraordinary tantrum on Wednesday, stunning spectators by destroying four racquets as he briefly lost the plot during his second round defeat to Switzerland’s Stanislas Wawrinka.

As footage of the tirade went viral, Baghdatis was fined US$800 by the tournament referee on Thursday for “abuse of racquets and equipment”.

World number three Federer, renowned as much for his controlled conduct on the court as his phenomenal success, said he was amused by the incident.

“It’s been a while (since I smashed a racquet),” said Federer. “I did see the highlights. I was watching some of the match, but I missed that part, unfortunately. I thought it was funny.

“You know, he strings with the same guys I string with, you know, so I felt bad for them for stringing three, four racquets that weren’t used afterwards.”

The 16-time grand slam champion, speaking after his third round win over Ivo Karlovic, said such an on-court outburst from him would be a shock to those who could not remember his youth, when he was known as a hot-head.

“People don’t remember me from 10, 12 years ago. They only remember me from sort of seven, eight years ago where I never threw a racquet,” he said.

“So that’s also why I just know how to keep my act together, and, I don’t know, guess be a good role model and just keep it calm. Works well.”

Belarus’ Victoria Azarenka said she had also put her racquet-smashing days behind her before her climb to world number three last year.

“Bad emotions is more in the back days a little bit. Beginning of last year I think it was the last (incident),” she said.

“Breaking racquets, you know. Having that almost crying face on the court, as a lot of players do. But I try to stay composed and control it.”

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