www.australianopen.com/en_AU/news/match_reports/2012-01-18/201201181326876871566.htmlFiery Baghdatis crash tests four racquets against WawrinkaWednesday, 18 January, 2012
By David BalcomBaghdatis crushes four racquets in four sets, loses to Stanislaw Wawrinka 7-6, 6-4, 5-7, 6-1.No one likes to follow John Isner. Before Marcos Baghdatis and Stan Wawrinka took the court, Isner and David Nalbandian stretched it out on Margaret Court Arena, in usual Isner style. After five sets and four hours, forty-one minutes, Isner again walked away the victor to a match that went way too long. But Isner's failure to break and close in four sets instead of where he ended up -- at 10-8 in the fifth-- had one great effect: it made Baghdatis v. Wawrinka a night match. The crowd was already amped, the vibe in the boxing ring-shaped Margaret Court Arena electric.
See Baghdatis crash test four racquets. None of them made it to the third round either.It felt more like a Davis Cup match than a second-rounder. This typified the match: an enthusiastic, highly organised group of chanters belted out tune after tune between points for Baghdatis, and the rowdy rest was clearly with the Cypriot as well. Occasionally some quieter Swiss voices made noise for the classically underappreciated Wawrinka, but they were quickly shouted down. Baghdatis has been a crowd favourite here since 2006 when he made his epic run to the final only to get the Federer treatment in three of their four final sets. He hasn't progressed past the third round since then, but they love him anyway. (And who did Baghdatis beat in the semis that year, coming back from a two sets to love deficit? David Nalbandian. Poor guy.)
Marcos Bahgdatis's racket bears the brunt of his
frustration during his match against Stanislas
Wawrinka on day three of the 2012 Australian Open
GettyIt was only the second meeting between the Swiss and the Cypriot. Wawrinka won their first contest at Indian Wells in 2008 in three sets.
So here's how it went: unseeded Baghdatis scrapped an early break out of the 21st seed and 2011 quarterfinalist Wawrinka in the first set, kept the pressure on the Swiss's forehand, and looked to make it a short first set. Instead he got sloppy and Wawrinka took full advantage, leveling the set at 5-5 and holding for a 6-5 lead. Baghdatis then held for 6-6 to force the tiebreak. Marcos didn't show up for the tiebreak until 0-5 in Wawrinka's favor, then clawed back to 3-6. To that point first set stats were near even, with only one winner separating the Swiss and the Cypriot. Unfortunately for Baghdatis, the next winner came at 6-3 for Wawrinka, a gutsy inside-out forehand that Steady Stan seared to close the set 7 points to 3 in the tiebreak.
Wawrinka kept the pedal down to open the second set, breaking Baghdatis in the first game and swinging away with impunity to take a 2-0 lead. The world No. 44 from Cyprus got it back together and started to hit freely again.
Wawrinka bricked a cross-court backhand to give Baghdatis a break point at 1-2. Baghdatis converted on another cross-court backhand unforced error by World No. 22 Wawrinka to level the second set at 2-2.
Then it got really rowdy. Like Baghdatis's oil derrick service motion, the match momentum swung from each man to the other and back again, the energetic crowd further electrifying the match. It seemed more Flushing Meadows than Melbourne Park, but there's nothing wrong with that.
The battle raged to 4-4, where Wawrinka pressured Baghdatis into a loose 0-40 service game, with Marcos giving up the game in a double-fault. Up a break and set to serve for a 2-0 lead, Wawrinka fell to 30-40, then produced some fierce wheels and a series of beautiful full-run stretch backhands to level the game at deuce. An ace and a clutch cross-court backhand that Baghdatis failed to convert at net put Stan up two sets to love.
One thing about Marcos: when he's on, he can find the angles, from either wing. At his best he resembles his hero, a Mr. Agassi. Taking the ball on the rise, reading the court, fluidly exposing where his opponent isn't. Like Andre, he prowls. He pushes his opponent back, forces the short ball, then flattens out his forehand and puts it away. Unfortunately for Baghdatis, he can't play Andre's game as well as Andre did, and he doesn't move the way Agassi did. Baghdatis frequently found himself out of position, stretched out, not set for his shots. Another page from Mr. Agassi's book: fitness counts, and it counted tonight. (As it did in 2006 at the US Open when Agassi bested Baghdatis in his last professional win before falling to B. Becker. Okay that was more guts and heart than fitness, but the point remains. Fittingly, Baghdatis beat Benjamin Becker in the first round here.)
Baghdatis held to open the first set, but failed to convert a break point at 1-0. Wawrinka held, then broke a tired Baghdatis at love, where the Cypriot broke some things of his own: racquet after racquet during the changeover --four in total-- earning him a code violation and $800 fine for racquet(s) abuse.
Baghdatis found his cool again and broke Wawrinka (back! forth!) to tie the set at 2-2. At 2-2 they play the biggest and best game of the match, including but not limited to half a dozen deuces and a 31 shot rally where Wawrinka netted a cross-court forehand after a dead-run game-saver by Marcos. Credit Baghdatis channeling Andre on that point. Epic stuff, brilliant if not imprecise tennis, each man pushing the other way off the court, swinging with abandon. Baghdatis dug in to save a handful of break points with beautiful retrieving and gutsy all-out play, with Baghdatis finally holding for 3-2.
Wawrinka held for 3-3 but made absolutely erratic errors on Baghdatis's 3-3 service game, with Baghdatis keeping his cool for a 40-0 hold. Back and forth they went, settling in to 4-4, each bloodying the other up with punch after punch, slugging it out to force an error, or just keeping his stuff together for one shot more than the other guy.
Another crucial double fault by Baghdatis gave Wawrinka a break point at 30-40, which he converted with a scorcher of a backhand into the Baghdatis body to give Stan the lead at 5-4. Marcos may need a reminder that Wawrinka's backhand is his stronger shot.
As is often the case with converting a huge break to serve out a match, only to be broken back … so it went with Wawrinka. Serving at 5-4, 15-30, Stan crushed a floater smash into the bottom of the net, then lost the game courtesy of a brilliant Baghdatis clutch forehand winner down the line. 5-5. You knew if Baghdatis could hold and break then it was a match. A long night's match. (Baghdatis no stranger to the Melbourne wee hours, having played the latest Open era match of all time in 2008 against Lleyton Hewitt. He lost that one in the fifth at 4:33am.)
With Wawrinka serving at 5-6 to force the tiebreak, the Cypriot played a solid return game and the Swiss had no reply. At 15-40, Baghdatis drilled a service return on the rise (Andre?), with Wawrinka unable to handle, swinging his forehand wide down the line. Two sets to one.
Then a tired Baghdatis donated a 0-40 service game with another double-fault to open the fourth and put Wawrinka on the board at 1-0. Wawrinka held, 2.0.
Another see-saw game on Baghdatis's serve --where Wawrinka had real chances to run away with the set and the match, netting a relatively easy inside-out forehand to close the game-- but Baghdatis held for 1-2, then Wawrinka did the same for 3-1. The gas left Marcos's tank with Stan finding an impossible angle with that beautiful one-handed cross-court backhand to set up an insurance break for 4-1.
Stan was too good in the final two games, his resolve too strong, his wheels too fast. It was over ten minutes later, with Stanislas Wawrinka defeating Marcos Baghdatis --with, no surprise, a cross-court backhand winner-- 7-6, 6-4, 5-7, 6-1.
Wawrinka played the big points better than Baghdatis, hit too freely with no reply, and in the final three sets doubled his winners to Baghdatis'. The stats, Wawrinka to Baghdatis: 67 unforced errors to 59, 41 winners to 19, 5 to 8 double-faults. Baghdatis left looking like a man who wants to believe, but isn't quite there.
So after 3 hours 10 minutes, Melbourne's favourite underachiever was dropped by a steadier counterpuncher. No stranger to losing his mind mid-match and giving away a long line of forehands himself, Wawrinka did no such thing tonight and walked away the victor. Next up: Spain's Nicolas Almagro.
And so it goes for Baghdatis: the promise looks a lot better than the result. His rowdy Aussie fans will have to wait another year. Again.