Fabio Fognini thrashes Marcos Baghdatis in the first round – Internazionali BNL d’Italia 2012
Italy’s Fabio Fognini, ranked 45th in the world, scored an easy win over former world number eight, Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus, in the first round at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia on Monday. The Italian defeated Baghdatis
in twin-sets 6-2, 6-2 in just an hour and 15 minutes and advanced to the round of 32.
Fognini grabbed lead straightaway, breaking the Cypriot in the first game of the opening set and winning his following serve to gain a 2-0 advantage. The Italian struck again in the seventh and served it out at 5-2.
The 5ft 10in tall smashed one ace and 74 percent of the first serves, sealing 14 of the 17 points on them in the opener. On the other hand, Baghdatis served poorly, as he maintained a first delivery percentage of just 56 and was
able to win merely eight of the 19 points on them. The Cypriot could not create any break opportunity on the Italian’s serve and failed to save two of the three threats on his own serve.
Just like the first set, Baghdatis was unable to hold in the opening game and lost the second one too, going down 0-2. This time, Fognini went one step further, as he broke the Cypriot in the third to build a 3-0 lead. Baghdatis
pulled one back in the fourth game but dropped his serve once more to trail 1-4. The Cypriot received a couple of chances to break the Italian again in the sixth but lost both of them to take the score to 1-5. Fognini allowed Baghdatis to claim one more game
but nothing more than that, sealing the second set 6-2.
The Italian further improved his serve compared to the opener, as he banged in 89 percent of the first serves and grabbed 16 of the 24 points on them. In comparison, Baghdatis’ situation deteriorated, hitting just 42 percent of
the first deliveries. The Cypriot was also too erratic on the second serves, as he lost 11 of the 15 points on them and committed three horrible double faults.
This is Fognini’s first win in his last three tournaments, losing in the opening matches at the Serbia Open and Mutua Madrid Open at the hands of Benoit Paire and Gilles Simon respectively.
The Italian will face either Spain’s Feliciano Lopez, seeded 15th at the event, or another Spaniard, Marcel Granollers, in the round of 32.
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