BNP Paribas Masters Paris, Oct 29-Nov 4

[choupi]

After his great week in Basel, Marcos will fly to Paris to play the last TMS of the season.

Singles main draw available here:

www.fft.fr/cms/GetDoc.asp?Type=5&ID=6507

Not easy at all. First match against Ferrero and then, Ljubicic in the 2nd round.

[christos]

Right, Ferrero is in good form for Ljubicic I don't know.
Choupi any chance to see matches in Paris?

[choupi]

Well, I live too far from Paris to go there and attend the event live. But I should get some relative good coverage on tv. Though I will be away for some personal stuff after Wednesday, with no internet and no tv access. Won't be able to follow anything from Berçy from Thursday on.

[choupi]

Marcos is scheduled last match on the Center Court tomorrow.

[choupi]

Marcos defeated Ferrero 6-4 6-2. Haven't seen the match. Next opponent, Ljubicic.....

[christos]

That's a good score!
Hope he will win, Im not afraid of Ljubicic.

[choupi]

Marcos can win against Ljubo. I'm not afraid either. They're 4th match on Court n°1 tomorrow. I won't be around for some days so I won't be able to update the result here. But good luck Marcos!!!

[christos]

Choupi, we were both right, Marcos beat Ljubicic, 6-4 7-6! Next is Nikolay Davydenko (who was accused of fixed games and last week too).
Go Marcos!

[christos]

Win for Marcos, 6-2 6-2!
In quarterfinals against Tommy Robredo.

[christos]

and...another win in straight sets for Marcos! 6-4 6-4 he beat Robredo!! Well done man!!

[choupi]

What a joy to discover about all those great results when I'm finally back home. Good job Marcos!!

And thanks Christos for keeping this site updated as to the results

[choupi]

From the ATP site:

Baghdatis Ends Robredo's Shanghai Hopes

Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis kept his Shanghai hopes alive with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over No. 8 seed Tommy Robredo in the BNP Paribas Masters quarterfinals on Friday, ending the Spaniard’s own hopes of qualifying for the Tennis Masters Cup.

World No. 22 Baghdatis, in 18th position in the ATP 2007 Race at the start of the day’s play, now earns 20 points - giving him a new total of 320 points. For the Cypriot to earn a place in Shanghai, he must win the title and not face either Andy Murray or Richard Gasquet in the final. He now goes on to face either No. 2 seed Rafael Nadal or Shanghai rival Mikhail Youzhny in his first ATP Masters Series semifinal.


Baghdatis broke Robredo in the opening game of the match but was forced to save two break points at 4-5 before closing out a one set lead. The 22-year-old then broke again, in the third game of the second set, propelling him to victory in one hour and 26 minutes after Robredo again had failed to break serve when the opportunity arose in the sixth game.

Making his debut in Paris, Baghdatis has defeated No. 13 seed Ivan Ljubicic, No. 4 seed Nikolay Davydenko and now No. 8 seed Robredo en route to his first AMS semifinal; his best previous run being the quarterfinals in Indian Wells 2006. He was appearing in his 10th quarterfinal of 2007, now holding a 5-5 record.

The Cypriot won his second ATP singles title earlier in the season in Zagreb (d. Ljubicic); he now improves to 48-21 for the season, and to 4-6 this year against Top 10 players.

World No. 8 Robredo was making his seventh appearance in Paris, his best result being a semifinal run last year (l. to Davydenko). The Spaniard has now gone 5-8 in his 13 quarterfinals in 2007, winning his fifth and sixth career ATP singles titles at Sopot (d. Acasuso) and Metz (d. Murray). He slips to 49-25 for the season, falling one short of 50 match wins for the season.

Beginning the day in eighth position in the ATP 2007 Race, the 25-year-old Robredo was bidding to become the third Spaniard to qualify for the Tennis Masters Cup behind Rafael Nadal and David Ferrer, but his challenge for one of the final two berths is now over.

WHAT THE PLAYERS SAID

Baghdatis: "The whole week I'm playing great tennis. Everything I do is going in and serving pretty good. I'm pretty positive I'm lucky, so I'm happy. Just trying to take every point I take and that's all. This is my best tournament since a long time. It's because I'm positive. I was negative lately with myself before, so I'm trying now to remain positive and to play well in all tournaments. Even if I don't go to the Masters, I know I learned a lot during this year and learned a lot for next year."

www.atptennis.com/1/en/2007news/paris_friday.asp

[choupi]

Marcos just lost to Nadal 4-6 6-4 6-3. He said yesterday, when interviewed, that, so far he hadn't been able to find the solution against Nadal. I'd say that today, he came closer to that aim.

Congrats for that great week in Paris Marcos. Enjoy the so well deserved rest now. See you back on tour in 2008.

[christos]

Sure he had good scores, it was difficult this one, he took a set not bad.

[choupi]

This is what he said after the match:

Baghdatis: "It's tough to lose a match that you're a set up, a break up, and everything's under control. And you cannot say I made mistake or something. The guy just put his level up a bit. He put pressure on me. He wasn't missing a ball. So it was tough. I had to make all the time winners. He didn't give any points. I had to serve all the time good. It's tough. But it's good. I think I have to stay positive because it's good to learn to lose these matches so I can get better on some things."

[On Gasquet's Shanghai Qualification:] "He deserves it. He played the whole year good. He's playing big tennis. He has a lot of talent. And, you know, things like this, when you go to the Masters, it's not lucky. You cannot say it's luck. It's people who deserve it. So I think he does."

www.atptennis.com/1/en/2007news/paris_saturday.asp