Marcos Baghdatis falls to Fabio Fognini in the second round – BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy 2012
Another shocker was witnessed in the second round of the BRD Nastase Tiriac Trophy on Thursday, as the world number 41, Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus, suffered a cracking defeat at the hands of the 57th ranked Italian,
Fabio Fognini. The contest lasted for one hour and 57 minutes before the unseeded Italian stunned his superior ranked opponent in two gruelling sets, 7-5, 7-6(4), to book a place in the quarter-finals of the tournament.
Being a part of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 250 clay-court swing, the competition was played on the outdoor courts of Bucharest, Romania. The fifth seed Cypriot stepped on the red clay as the hot favourite
for winning the contest but it went completely the other way. Fognini posed some solid resistance in the match and kept attacking Baghdatis right from the beginning. After an intense battle for almost two hours, the Italian finally registered his third victory
of the 2012 ATP season to get 1-0 against the Cypriot in the head-to-head series.
It was an enthralling battle between the two experienced players. The overall match stats don’t show much difference between the two competitors but it seemed just the matter of time that Fognini bagged some crucial points in the
contest to take the better of Baghdatis. He served with 77 per cent accuracy, winning 33 out of 58 first serve points and converted six of the 14 break points he crafted in the match. Baghdatis closely followed him with five out of eighth conversions but couldn’t
deliver the decisive blow to finish on the losing side in the end.
The thrilling opening set witnessed six break points being registered from both ends to take the scores to 5-5. Fognini went one step further and nailed his fourth serve break of the day to take the driving seat and then served
out of the set at 6-5 to get one up. Two break points apiece came in the following set and scores were deadlocked at 6-6. Baghdatis crumbled in the tie-breaker round to let the second set to his opponent at 6-7(4), sending him to the round of eight.
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