Marcos Baghdatis knocks out Robin Haase; advances into last eight – UNICEF Open 2011
Second seeded wild card entrant, Marcos Baghdatis dumped Netherlands’ number one, Robin Haase in straight sets on his home soil on Wednesday. The Cypriot Baghdatis registered a 7-5, 6-4 victory over the 24-year-old Dutchman to
advance into the quarter-finals of the UNICEF Open 2011, a grass court tournament held in s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands.
25-year-old Baghdatis registered a straight set victory to take revenge from his loss to Haase three years ago at Chennai. After earning the victory at this ATP World Tour 250 series event, the Cypriot took the lead in their head-to-head
series by 2-1 against Haase.
A former top ten player, Baghdatis despite committing more double faults and clobbering a lower first serve share of 51 percent as compared to Dutchman’s 69 percent, displayed magnificent skills to hold on to his entire serves.
He then converted the only breakpoint chance to his advantage in the end and eventually sealed the set by winning seven games to five. In addition to this, the Cypriot registered a spectacular 90 percent win on his first serve and netted forty out of seventy-seven
points.
World number thirty-one, Baghdatis carried his winning ways into the final set as held his opening serve in the second game to level the scores by 1-1. He kept his remaining serves by blistering forehands from his arsenal of skills
and converted the only breakpoint opportunity to his advantage to clinch the set with a 6-4 win. Ranked 27 places above his Dutch rival, Baghdatis registered much better stats to him this time as he produced a higher first serve share of 65 percent as opposed
to Haase’s 60 percent and earned a fascinating 82 percent win on it.
Baghdatis won back to back matches after this victory for the first time since February at Rotterdam. He was in good shape at the start of the season as he made last eight berths at Brisbane and Rotterdam but his form steeply dipped
and he fell to a six match losing streak.
He next confronts German Denis Gremelmayr who upset fifth seeded Finn Jarkko Nieminen by prevailing in two tie-breakers in a three set nail biter match. The Cypriot last won three matches in a row in October at Moscow and he seems
to re-kindle his spark at this event.
29-year-old German saved five out of eleven breakpoints conceded and converted four out of six breakpoint opportunities to his advantage to seal the deal in two hours and twenty-one minutes. He lost his way in the second set but
exchanged two breaks in the opening and final set to drag them to tie-breakers where he dominated and clinched the match with a 7-6(3), 2-6, 7-6(5) win.
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