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.

Baghdatis in South Africa 2009

Marcos has signed up to appear at the South African Open tennis championship to be held at Montecasino in Johannesburg from February 2 to 8 2009. It is mentioned that “he is hoping to re-launch his career” there. He is sure to have a good following there, through Joburg’s sizeable Cypriot Diaspora.

On the other hand, he has also registered to play at the Australian open, held from January 19 through February 1, 2009. Am I the only one noticing the discrepancies?