ZAGREB – Cypriot tennis star Marcos Baghdatis moved into the second round of the Zagreb Indoors where he is set to face Blaz Kavcic on Thursday after a 6-7, 6-2, 6-4 victory over Germany’s Tobias Kamke on Wednesday.
Kamke converted his second set point in the tiebreak to take the lead but could not keep up the pressure. Baghdatis won all 29 points on his first serve in the second and third sets.
"I did not expect him to play so good, I was a bit surprised," said Baghdatis, who was the 2007 champion. "He was very aggressive ... I needed time to adjust."
Robin Haase of the Netherlands also came back from one set down to beat the Croatian wild card Antonio Veic 2-6, 6-3, 6-3. Flavio Cipolla made it to the second round after Lukas Lacko of Slovakia, who reached the final in Zagreb last year, retired at 1-1 in the first set because of a back injury.
Next up for Baghdatis is Slovenia’s Kavcic who is currently ranked 83rd in the world and made it to the third round of a grand slam for the first time in his career this year defeating the 29th seed Thomaz Bellucci and local wildcard James Duckworth, before losing to 7th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 2-6, 1-6, 4-6 in the Australian Open.
Baghdatis has faced Kavcic once before when the two played each other in a 2008 Davis Cup match in Nicosia. Baghdatis had prevailed 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 as Cyprus defeated the Slovenians 3-2.