Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis seems to be determined to raise his rankings in the coming year and it seems as if he plans to leave no stone unturned in his attempt to do so.
The 25-year-old tennis pro has reportedly lost over 10 pounds, a result of the tough off-season regime he has been following to improve his fitness and stamina. These schedule included gym workouts, mountain biking and measured diet.
The player’s trainer, Andreas Nicolaou, told the ATP website that he “Drank lots of water, avoided the fatty acids.. everything is steamed or grilled and the portions are the correct portions. The main thing is to be stable and stay on that number of 10
percent body fat.”
This year, Baghdatis season was cut short due to a shoulder injury which forced him to quit 2010 early. However, he has gradually moved back into a routine which will enable him to play high-level tennis once again. The player spent two weeks working on
endurance training, and two weeks preparing for 2011 with exercises and training on practice courts.
Nicolaou noted that Baghdatis seems to have made considerable progress, saying, “He was running 10 metres in 1.7 seconds, now he can do it in 1.6 seconds.. he used to struggle with 100 kg on the bench press, we can now increase it to 130 kg.”
The Greek player finished the year as World Number 20. He is still recovering from his 2008 run which was particularly harmful for his career as he suffered with injuries throughout and fell to World Number 100.
Marcos Baghdatis made it as far as World Number 8, a career-high ranking, in the year 2006. This was also the year in which he reached the final of the Australian Open. He also made it to the semi-finals of the Wimbledon Championships in the same year. Perhaps
his new exercise regime and motivation will be enough to guide him back to the top ten players in the world. But only time will tell.
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