Marcos Baghdatis tumbles over Lukasz Kubot to reach the quarters – PBZ Zagreb Indoors 2012
Cypriot ace, Marcos Baghdatis, trashed the Polish competitor, Lukasz Kubot, in straight sets at the PBZ Zagreb Indoors 2012 on Thursday. He clobbered a 6-4, 6-2 victory over the Boleslawiec-born Kubot to book a place in the final eight at the first ATP (Association
of Tennis Professionals) World Tour event held after the Australian Open.
Tournament’s sixth seed, Baghdatis, required 76 minutes to overcome the Pole, ranked 61st in the South African Airways ATP World Rankings, in their second meeting. He not only maintained his winning record against Kubot in the FedEx ATP head2head
series but also inched closer to bag $416,000 prize money.
"I can say in the first round I started very well; Rosol played very well in the middle of the first set," said the delighted Cypriot after the match. "So I cannot say if I played better or not, but today I kept the momentum and I kept the way I started
against Rosol and that made the win a bit easier. I’m feeling good now. I’m happy. I’m playing good and I think my ranking will go up slowly."
The Cypriot confidently stepped on the Zagreb hard courts and unleashed his skills after the opening game. He drew the first blood in the third game and then held remaining serves to sack the set with a 6-4 win. Baghdatis outplayed his opponent completely
in this set as he produced a better first serve share and defended the only breakpoint he came across. He also marvellously clicked 16 out of 20 points on it and converted one out of two breakpoint opportunities to his advantage.
Baghdatis lowered his first serve share in the following set but got the coveted break in the opening game to take the initial edge. He slide in remaining serves without facing any barrier and capitalised on another break chance in the seventh game to clinch
the opener with a 6-2 score line.
A former world number eight, Baghdatis will square off against the defending champion, Ivan Dodig, who is also the fourth seed of this tournament. The local star made an epic comeback from a set down to register a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 success against Spain’s Guillermo
Garcia-Lopez over two hours and 37-minutes. He lost his serve four times but cashed in three out of nine break chances to dominate. Dodig also smashed 12 aces and apart from producing a lower first serve share, he impressively clinched 41 out of 59 points
on it.
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