Marcos Baghdatis undoes Matthias Bachinger to inch closer to 200th win mark – Moselle Open 2011
World number 60, Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus, registered a comprehensive straight sets victory over the unseeded German, Matthias Bachinger, in the opening round of Moselle Open on Monday night.
The unseeded Cypriot took just one hour and sixteen minutes of play to wrap up victory at 7-5, 6-2, to make it to the second round of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 250 tournament with ease.
Baghdatis’ victory improved his year’s winning record to 21-21 and drew him closer to a milestone of 200 victories in his career. The Cypriot is now just one win away to get 200 victories under his belt and is surging to clinch
his first championship title of the season.
Bachinger proved a bleak opponent for the belligerent Cypriot, who cruised through the game with his pin-point power hitting to register his second consecutive win over the German. Their last meeting took place in Munich, Germany,
in 2007, with Baghdatis defeating the home favourite 6-7(7), 6-2, 6-4, to make it to the quarter-finals of the tournament.
The unseeded Cypriot amazingly clinched 28 out 32 first serve points in the game, dropping just four points on his serve to outclass the German opponent. He cracked in three serve breaks out of his seven opportunities and successfully
defended the only break point he faced from Bachinger in the opening set.
Baghdatis faced some resistance in the opening set of the match, with Bachinger toiling hard to take him down early in the contest. No serve breaks were seen in the opening 10 games of the match but the Cypriot nailed a crucial
one in the 11th game to serve out of the first set at 7-5.
“It was a very tight first set that could have gone both ways; not because I was playing bad but because he was playing good and serving extremely well,” Baghdatis said after winning the contest. “I stayed positive and was able
to manage the situation well today and I am very happy about that.”
Baghdatis raced to a 4-0 lead in the second set, striking two cracking serve breaks and then went on to close out victory at 6-2 to get through to the second round of the Moselle Open. He will take on the third seeded Ukrainian,
Alexandr Dolgopolov, in the next round for a place in the quarter-finals of the tournament.
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