MUNICH - Cypriot tennis star Marcos Baghdatis squeezed into the quarterfinals of the BMW Munich Open on Wednesday after coming back from behind to defeat Germany’s Dustin Brown 1-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Baghdatis will now take on another German as he faces off against wild card Tommy Haas on Friday, a former world number two, who upset top seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-1, 6-4 in midweek.
After missing out on two break point chances in the early stages of the match, German qualifier Brown raced through the opener. The former Australian Open finalist quickly regrouped, though, breaking his opponent’s serve in the fifth game before levelling the match.
He then capitalised on his momentum to break at the start of the final set and went on to close out victory in one hour and 47 minutes.
“I was very pleased with the victory,” commented Baghdatis after the game. “It was a very tough one. Dustin played a very good first set. He's a very unpredictable player; I didn't know what to expect. I kept pushing and I'm very, very happy I went through because it's a great mental fight.”
The last meeting between Baghdatis and Haas took place seven years again in Basel with the Cypriot prevailing in straight sets.
“It (the match against Haas) will be a very tough one too, but I think every match on clay is very tough. You need to fight every match and that's what I'm going to do on Friday.”