Baghdatis wins the Stockholm Open 2009

Yeah, yeah, yeah!

This is no mickey mouse tournament. 250 points and $100k to play with. OK Soderling was a walk over and Olivier Rochus is not the most formidable of opponents. But a 6-1, 7-5 is convincing and the points are for real. A new beginning? Back to the good times? Tomorrow Marcos should shoot up the rankings back where he belongs.

Baghdatis beats Robert Kendrick

Come on Marcos keep the momentum. 6-2, 6-2. 7 aces in less than an hour. Judging by our form (I know of two games only) Arnaud Clement the 31 year old ageing Frenchman (who is up next) should be breakfast material.

This is supposed to be Robin Soderling's tournament, and we want to steal it.

Bagdatis beats Juan Carlos Ferrero at the Stockholm Open

Eat our dust Juan. 6-4, 6-2 is pretty solid stuff. Robert Kendrick up next, for a change a player ranked lower than us. Game starts soon, so tune your sets.

Baghdatis in Stockholm

Marcos has shot up the ATP rankings (by 20 odd places please!) and is now back in the top 70. Which now gets him into some half decent tournaments, such as the Stockholm Open, part of the ATP 250 circuit. First draw vs Juan Carlos Ferrer. Not an easy draw I'm afraid... The game is probably scheduled for Wednesday the 21st. The Stig says you can watch it on a JustinTV 4x4 screen here, live free and online. I am not so sure.

What is Baghdatis wearing?

Marcos has just conquered the prestigious Tashkent Open after brushing aside the infamous Denis Istomin. Where is Tashkent I hear you ask? Yep, dear readers, I had never heard of this place before. It is of course, the capital of Uzbekistan, with a population larger than Cyprus (~3 million).

After his hard earned 2-1 victory in the final Marcos had to wear what you see in the picture (is that a noodle take away box on his head?). Would he have still pursued the win, had he known about this impending photoshoot? Images of Borat...

Nadal beats Baghdatis (again) at the China Open

No surprises there. A limp Nadal struggled a bit, but would the end result ever have been any different? Perhaps a couple of years ago...

Mikhail Youzhny beats Baghdatis at the Malaysian Open

6-2, 6-3 to Mikhail Youzhny. Malaysian tour over, China next. Will Marcos stick around in SE Asia or come home for a mixed kebab?

Baghdatis beats Lu Yen-hsun, Mikhail Youzhny to come.

Praise raining in from all angles. Marcos has beaten no 75 in the world: Lu Yen-hsun the 26 year old from Taiwan. It only took us 3 sets over 3 hours. Is that what we have been reduced to? Mikhail Youzhny the Russian, is up next - a pretty respectable opponent. He beat Marcos at his inaugural Wimbledon appearance. Praise is due if we beat him.

Baghdatis in Malaysia

Marcos has squeezed a  wild card to take part in the Malaysian Open next week.This ATP tournament is worth a million bucks and offers the winner 250 ATP points. Nikolay Davydenko tops the seeds.

Baghdatis' ranking

Marcos has remained out of the top 100. Just click on this link and you will find you need to follow on to rankings 101-200 for his name to appear.

Some good news though, is his entry in the 2009 China Open. He needed a wild-card invitation on the back of his 2006 victory here, but should he perform well in Beijing there are points (and yes, money!, over $3 million in fact) to be won.

Could a good performance here herald a return to the good times? Come on Marcos, you are not over the hill yet...

Baghdatis in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence

Months have gone by, and Marcos is off the radars... Languishing in triple figure rankings he now competes in fringe ATP Challenger tournaments such as 'Le Trophée des Alpilles'.

Will he ever claw his way back into the big boys' club?

Baghdatis makes sushi Nishikori

Straight sets, 7-5, 6-3. I do hope Sam Querrey makes it to the next round. We need revenge!

Memphis here we come!

First up is a 19 year old Japanese guy by the name of Kei Nishikori ranked 56th, about 30 places above us. If the script is right, he will be flying back to Tokyo soon, which brings us back to guess who... Sam Querrey, our nemesis.

Baghdatis squashed by Querrey

2 sets to 1, short stay in San Jose. Is this a return to Marcos’ familiar form? Off to Mephis.

Baghdatis at San Jose 2009

And so to the states. San Jose 2009 (aka SAP open) starts tomorrow with Marcos facing Sam Querrey the 8th seed. This guy, ranked 50 places above us (he is no 35 in the universe) beat Marcos less than a year ago at the Paris masters. Time for revenge?

Bye Bye SA

David Ferrer was the end of the road. Decent first set with decent service, but hopeless in the second. Final score: 7-5, 6-2. Onto San Jose next week.

Baghdatis cooks Klaasen on the braai

6-3, 7-5. Nice and sweet, Marcos advances to the quarterfinals. David Ferrer next. He is ranked 72 (!) places above Marcos and in 2006 beat him in straight sets, their only encounter to date. Despite this, Baghdatis is still second favourite (behind Tsonga) to win this tournament.

Baghdatis makes biltong out of Anderson

Yummy yummy.

Marcos beats Anderson 6-4, 6-2. First set was closer than one might have expected. Good result though,. Next up is Raven Klaasen another South African wildcard. Ranked 350th by ATP he should also be a matter of procedure. Careful though, he's just beaten Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo in straight sets. And we all know how Marcos can mess these 'easy ties' up...

Baghdatis stays in the southern hemisphere.

Seeded 8th, due to our ranking, the South African Open should be an opportunity to earn some invaluable points. Eighty Fifth in the world is a bit embarrassing… we want single figures Marcos!

We kick off facing Andrew Anderson , ranked 1546th in the world ( I wander if he's a wildcard entry being a local). No surprise, it’s our first encounter. Come on Marcos, lets make some boerewors out of this guy. Last game today (Monday) on centre court.

I’m wandering, who will the South African Greeks be cheering on?

And Baghdatis shoots up the ATP rankings!

New week, new rankings, from 100th to 85^th; on the back of a decent start to the season. Bowed out of the Aussie Open losing to Djokovic in a tightly contested match (again). It is worth mentioning that Djokovic - on the back of this game - had to retire from his next fixture with Roddick the following day. One could argue then that Marcos knocked the no 3 in the world out of the Australian Open! For those who remember, it has happened before, during Wimbledon 2007.

Marcos’ 4^th round Australian Open points replace the ones he gained 12 months ago where he only reached round 3, so up the ranking he shoots. Next tournament is in Sout Efrika.

Serb Fans

The Serbs are nicking our trademark. What does this remind you of? And I thought we were the only ones to turn tennis into a football game. Mind you, the Serbs have 3 cracking players to cheer on.

But you know, that's what i like about the Australian Open. Laid back. You can cheer your player on without some British Legion octogenarian going all menstrual over it. Can anyone imagine that sort of atmosphere in Paris or Wimbledon? Fat chance. They have to be 'proper'.

I hate Australian time though. It sucks having to get up in the early hours to watch Baghdatis. Why cant they just play during daytime? Or perhaps around 7pm CET - so that I can watch it over my supper.

Baghdatis is picking up pace.

Söderling dispatched. Just about. It was looking very much a pending disaster half way into the game - 1 set down and trailing 5-4. But Marcos managed to turn it around to a 3-1 victory, 3-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-3. Don't want to tempt fate but Mardy Fish who follows tomorrow, should be just procedural. Which will bring us to a different Fish (or kettle of). Djokovic. Nuff said.

Baghdatis beats Benneteau

Marcos dispatched Benneteau with apparent ease. Bar the puke. 6-3, 7-6, 6-2.

Next up is Söderling, who currently ranks 16th and has been our nemesis three times to date. Scheduled as the last game on show court 2.

Baghdatis at Australia 2009

Marcos kicks off down under ranked 98th and facing Julien Benneteau, currently ranked 48th by ATP. He has beaten Marcos on both previous encounters but that was in 2006.

In an interview with the Age Marcos is quoted: "I feel happy being on court again : I feel fitter than ever".

Come on Marcos, make it 3 wins in a row. Australian Open here we come.

Baghdatis beats Cilic

More great news! We've beaten Marin Cilic in straight sets! (6-3, 6-2)

No mean feat my friends. He is no 20 in the world. Are we back, or are we back? Australian Open here we come.

Baghdatis beats Ljubicic

Great news! First time we've won in ages. Can anyone even remember the last time we won? I can't... it has been months!
I watched the first set, which was close, settled on a tie break. Marcos' service needed (a lot of) tweaking.

Ljubicic has become Marcos' whipping boy. Four wins vs 1 loss to date, even though Ivan is ranked a mind boggling 40 or so places above us. Unfortunately though i dont think this tournament offers any ATP points.

Baghdatis loses at AAMI

Marcos Baghdatis lost to Stanislas Wawrinka in his first game at the AAMI Kooyong Classic. Two sets to love, 6-2, 6-2. Marcos has a new haircut though...

I wander where Stanislas' sunrame comes from. He bats for the Swiss but his surname sounds Polish to me. Great player, no wander he's top 20.

Baghdatis Knocked Out In Brisbane

Not the best of starts to the year! 2-1 sets to Nieminen in round one. Next up is the AAMI Classic at Kooyong, Melbourne. It's an exhibition tournament though, no points up for grabs. Which means we must be out of the top 100 next week. The only way is up!

Baghdatis at Brisbane 2009

First round, vs Nieminen. All square (2-2) in head to head encounters, last match in 2007. Nieminen won that one and he is now 41^st in the world. A whopping 55 places above Marcos. Surely, we cannot past him, can we?

Hopefully this will be live on Eurosport.