Leonardo Mayer stuns Marcos Baghdatis to reach the third round – French Open 2011
Another surprising result in the second round of Roland Garros, as world number 29, Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus crashed out of the tournament after suffering a defeat at the hands of the 217th ranked, Leonardo Mayer of
Argentina on Thursday. Baghdatis hung in the contest for two hours and thirty two minutes before the Argentine wrapped up his straight sets victory at 7-5, 6-4, 7-6(6), to qualify for the third round of the second Grand Slam tournament of the year.
It was an enthralling game of tennis, with both competitors labouring extremely hard to get on top of their opponent. Baghdatis competed very well and fought till the end but the Argentine was simply too good for him to contain.
Mayer cashed in most of his opportunities at the right time and outclassed the 27th seeded competitor in straight sets to move one step further on the road to glory.
The two players first faced each other last year at Nice, France, where Mayer stood victorious 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, in the quarter-final of the tournament. The Argentine registered his third victory of the current ATP (Association of
Tennis Professionals) season to extend his head-to-head lead against Baghdatis to 2-0.
The contest appeared well poised throughout but Mayer kept clinching crucial points to remain one step ahead of the Cyprian most of the time. Despite of a below par serve precision of merely 49 per cent, Mayer reeled off 35 out
of 44 first serve points in the game and stung three serve breaks in the entire contest to come out as the winner in the end.
Mayer was very aggressive in his approach towards the contest and raided the net on 36 occasions to clout 28 points in the contest. The Argentine secured 41 winners, while his opponent collected just 19 in the match to remain on
the losing side at the end.
Although Mayer spilled out 37 unforced errors in the match, he secured 112 points to wrap up victory for him. Baghdatis dropped the opening two sets but posed some serious resistance in the third one, dragging the set into a tie
breaker round, which Mayer took at 7-6(6).
The Argentine now books a place in the third round of the French Open and will take on world number five, Robin Soderling of Sweden up next. The Swede was successful against the Spanish qualifier Albert Ramos in straight sets 6-3,
6-4, 6-4, in the second round clash.
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