2011 ABN AMRO World Tennis: Andy Murray vs. Marcos Baghdatis – Preview
World number five, Andy Murray kicks off his ATP Tour in Rotterdam on Wednesday as he plays against the Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis. Seeded second in the draw in Novak Djokovic’s absence, Murray is currently playing at the 2011 ABN
AMRO World Tennis Tournament this week.
Murray started the year ranked fourth in the world. However, he was bumped one place down in the rankings by Robin Soderling as the latter clinched the title at the 2011 Brisbane International tennis tournament.
Murray started the year by playing in the first International Tennis Federation event of the year, the Hopman Cup, partnering Laura Robson. Although Murray won all his singles rubbers by defeating Potito Starace, Nicolas Mahut
and John Isner, Great Britain failed to win enough ties to secure a spot in the finals.
After the Hopman Cup, Murray played at the second ITF event of the season, the Grand Slam Down Under. Seeded fifth in the event, Murray moved past Karol Beck, Illya Marchenko, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Jurgen Melzer in straight
sets to secure a spot for himself in the quarterfinal. After meeting Alexandr Dolgopolov in the quarterfinal, Murray dropped a set for the first time in the event as he clinched a four-set win over the Ukrainian. Murray then advanced to the semi-final where
he bounced back from being one set down to do away with David Ferrer and make it into the final two. However, this was as far as the Brit would go. Pitted against Novak Djokovic in the final, Murray was defeated in straight sets and denied a maiden Grand Slam
win.
As he kicks off the ATP Tour in Rotterdam, Murray puts in his third participation at the event. Murray’s debut here in 2008 was extremely disappointing with a first round exit at the hands of Robin Haase. However, returning the
next year, Murray made it all the way to the finals and defeated top Spaniard Rafael Nadal to clinch a title at the event.
In his first round match against Baghdatis, Murray will meet the Cypriot for the fourth time on the courts. After having played once on each surface, Baghdatis leads the head-to-head score 2-1 with a perfect 1-0 lead on hard courts.
However, the pair’s last meeting on hard court had come in 2007 at the Cincinnati Masters. Since then, the Brit has improved considerably and this blip in the statistics hardly factors into the result of his match today.
Currently ranked 20th in the world, Baghdatis is one of the six players to have started the year unofficially at the 2010 Mubadala World Tennis Championship in Abu Dhabi. However, Tomas Berdych ousted the Cypriot from
the event in the first round.
His first official event on the tour came in Brisbane when he played at the 2011 Brisbane International as the fifth seed. After doing away with Florent Serra and Lukasz Kubot, Baghdatis had made his way into the quarterfinals
before losing to eventual runner up, Andy Roddick.
His run in the Grand Slam Down Under met with some bad fortune along the way. Seeded 21st in the event, Baghdatis successfully made it into the third round. However, while playing against Jurgen Melzer, Baghdatis retired
from the event citing an injury in his right finger.
This week marks the Cypriot’s third participation at the Rotterdam event. His best at the event came last year when he made it into the second round before losing to Nikolay Davydenko. Although the Cypriot hopes to go one-step
further this time around, drawing against Murray hurts those chances considerably.
Prediction: Enjoying his top form this season, Murray is clearly the favourite to win the match against Baghdatis. Not only does he rank higher, but also his recent form trumps any statistical
disadvantages stacked against him.
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