“Best win of my career,” was how Marcos Bagdatis described his three-set victory over Roger Federer in the third round of the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, the first Masters 1000 event on the ATP’s 2010 calendar.
For Baghdatis, who’d suffered six straight defeats at the hands of the masterful Swiss and entered the match at Indian Wells winless against Federer, the tight 5-7, 7-5, 7-6(4) victory was a moment to savour for a few very good reasons.
That sextet of losses to the world No. 1 are some of them, but the one that stands out was in the final of the 2006 Australian Open, where the unseeded Cypriot fell just one win short of completing the fairytale after cutting a swathe through the rest of the field.
That Australian Open established Baghdatis as the kind of player fans love to watch, and it was in that year the right-hander made his debut in the top 10.
But as injury set in during 2008, Baghdatis went into rankings freefall to end the season at world No. 98. When the rankings were announced on July 6th, 2009 Baghdatis had dropped from No. 93 to No. 151 as injury continued to take its toll.
Then there was his never-say-die approach to the match itself. The Cypriot saved two match points on serve in the second and came back from 1-4 down in the third, and saved yet another match point during that set, to record his first win against the 16-time Grand Slam champion, all of which would have contributed to making the occasion that much more special for him.
Yes, after all that a win against Federer was always going to provide Baghdatis with cause to kiss the court once the final point was won.
The 24-year-old’s return from injury is still a work in progress – it’s fair to say it won’t be complete until he moves closer to his career-high ranking of world No. 8, achieved back in 2006 – but wins such as the one against Federer, and titles at Stockholm late in 2009 and Sydney at the start of 2010 have propelled Baghdatis back to a current ranking of world No. 33. And he can reasonably expect to return to the top 30 when next week’s ATP singles rankings are released.
But what of Federer after the loss? The message the Fed-ex sent by winning his 16th Grand Slam title at Melbourne Park was that the doubters write him off at their own peril. After all, at the same time last year, the dad-of-two hadn’t yet won his first title of the calendar year. He ended up with four, including the Roland Garros and Wimbledon crowns.
For his part, Baghdatis can, and should, take a moment to bask in this victory before he refocuses on a fourth round match against 18th seed Tommy Robredo and the potential to win the first Masters 1000 title of his career. After all, he knows better than most just how hard wins against the man who has been labelled as a playing legend are to come by.
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