Kuala Lumpur, 28 September: For the second year running, Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis has reached the quarterfinals of the Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur 2011 that is currently into its fifth day at the Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil. He overcame a strong challenge from world No.89 and India’s currently top ranked player, Somdev Devvarman to win 7-5, 6-4 in 105 minutes. Devvarman looked strong in the first set when he broke Baghdatis in the seventh game and took a 5-3 lead, but the Cypriot came back to break the Indian's serve in the tenth and twelfth game. Baghdatis always seemed to save his best for when his back was against the wall, saving a total of seven out of eight break points in the first set. In the second set, Baghdatis displayed good serve form, racking up four aces and taking a 3-1 lead, and while Devvarman hit a number of good winners, he also suffered from lapses in concentration that boosted his count of unforced errors for which he eventually paid the price. “I was a bit impatient in the beginning but changed my game to suit the slow court. It was disappointing to have my serve broken but I took it point for point and it turned out ok. It is always tough against Somdev,” said the 26-year-old Baghdatis, who also added he has been working hard on improving his fitness. Baghdatis, who will face Melzer in the quarterfinals, said he is looking forward to giving his best against the Austrian after having retired against him in the Australian Open. “I am disappointed I had to retire with an injured finger the last time we met. He is a great player and I will give it my all against it.” Austrian world No.21 Jurgen Melzer, meanwhile, took just over an hour to dispose off SouthAfrican qualifier Rik De Voest 6-0, 6-4 in the first second round match of the tournament played here on the Putra Stadium Centre Court today. The 30-year-old Melzer, who received a bye in the first round, was in fantastic form from the get go, serving his opponent a bagel first set with his consistent serve game, solid returns and strong baseline play. Thirty one-year-old De Voest put up a stronger challenge in the early stages of the second set, but failed to hit the form that saw him overcome American Ryan Sweeting yesterday, instead making a series of unforced errors and bad returns that helped fourth seed Melzer sweep into the quarterfinals. “I played pretty well today. I think the first set was one of the best I have played all year,” said the Austrian who hit his career high of No.8 in April this year. “Once you reach the top-ten, it’s different because you become the favourite to win every game. I just hope to keep on playing like this,” he added. In the biggest upset of the tournament so far, Italian Flavio Cipolla dashed young Australian Bernard Tomic’s hopes of progressing into the second round when he overcome the higher ranked 18-year-old tennis sensation 6-2, 6-2 in just 72 minutes. The scene was set early on for the 27-year-old’s Italian’s upset when he broke Tomic’s serve as early as the first game. Clearly not at the form that saw him reach the Wimbledon quarterfinals this year, Tomic struggled with his serve throughout the match, with the world No.96 Cipolla returning strongly and Tomic finding it hard to adapt to the Italian's aggressive play. Tomic continued to adopt a defensive approach in the second set but was prone to errors while Cipolla was strong coming into the net to finish off points against the lethargic 18-year-old world No.59. ”It was a great match for me. He is good player but he wasn’t playing at his best and his serve wasn’t his usual. I was solid and smart and didn't make any mistakes. We had a lot of long rallies which I won, so it was a good game for me,” said Cipolla, who is playing the best tennis of his career and recently beat Andy Roddick in the ATP World Tour Masters in Madrid in May.Cipolla will have to again be at his best if he hopes for a result in his second round match against the tournament’s third seed, Serbian Janko Tipsarevic. The other seeded player in action today was seventh seed and World No.41 Dmitry Tursonov who hit eight aces en route to defeating 20-year-old wild card David Goffin 6-3, 6-3 in 83 minutes. Meanwhile, in the final game of the singles first round, Uzbek Denis Istomin ended Australian Marinko Matosevic’s challenge in the tournament when he defeated the 26-year qualifier 6-3, 6-2 in 73 minutes.
Top seeds take to Centre Court tomorrow Top three seeds Nicolas Almagro, Viktor Troicki and Janko Tipsarevic will all be in action in their second round matches tomorrow, while fifth seed Davydenko and eighth seed Nishikori are also featuring in their second round matches. The first match slated to being at 1pm on Centre Court will see second seeded Serbian Troicki, who has yet to play a match, take on Uzbek Denis Istomin. Next up, fifth seed Nicolay Davydenko will face Polish world No.57 Lukasz Kubot, with the duo only having played in each other once in the 2009 US Open, with Davydenko emerging victorious. Japan’s Kei Nishikori, who overcome a rough start before defeating his qualifier opponent in the first round, will have to show more consistency if he is to defeat one half of US Open doubles champions, Philipp Petzschner, in his second round match. Now No.54 in the world, the 21-year-old Nishikori is ranked only a few spots higher than his 27-year-old opponent, who is currently at No.66, but has held a ranking as high as No.35. Top seed and World No.9 Nicolas Almagro of Spain will face a fellow Spaniard Albert Ramos in his first match of the tournament. Ramos, who made it through to the second round after Kazakhstan’s Mikhail Kukushkin retired in the 3rd set of their first round match, is ranked No.80 in the world and has never played Almagro before. Almagro will be motivated to do well in the Malaysian Open, as he stands a good chance to make to the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in November, should he take all 250 points home.In the final match to be played on Centre Court tomorrow, Serbian Janko Tipsarevic will take on Flavio Cipolla of Italy. Tipsarevic is tipped to win the game based on his superior ranking, but the duo have never met before and Cipolla is playing the best tennis of his career.
Local boys put up a valiant fight but fall to top ranked opponents in doubles Local tennis stars Ahmad Deedat Abdul Razak and Ariez Elyaas Deen Heshaam put on a good display on front of home fans but eventually succumbed to the experience of their third seeded opponents Frantisek Cermak and Filip Polasek 6-2, 6-2 in just under an hour. The boys started off brightly with some aggressive net play and held serve until the sixth game, when the Czech-Slovakian duo finally broke them to take a 4-2 lead and seal the first set. Both Deedat and Ariez struggled with their serve rhythm and gifted their opponents a number of double fault points during the match, but it was clear to all watching that the boys were giving it their all and managed to pull off some impressive winners. At 5-0 down in the second, the teenagers finally won their first game of the set and even managed to break their opponents serve next, much to the delight of the crowd. "I think we played alright, not too bad but our opponents were just at a much higher level. We just went all out and tried to have fun. Being in this atmosphere makes you want to work harder to rise to the level needed to make this your career,” said 17-year-old Ariez Elyaas. “This is the life I want - playing in tournaments like these,” added the 16-year-old Ahmad Deedat. Although they secured the win, it is still too early to tell if 34-year-old Cermak can go all the way and defend his Malaysian Open doubles title, albeit with a new partner. On 26-year-old Polasek, the Czech said: "He is a very good player and (our partnership) is going very well so far." In today’s final game on Centre Court, but certainly not the least interesting, number one Si Yew-Ming and 19-year-old American Ryan Harrison partnered up as a wild card entry and took on the second seeds in the tournament, American Eric Butorac and Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands Antilles, in their first round doubles match. The Malaysian-American scratch pairing put on a passionate and exciting show but eventually went down 6-4, 7-5 in 65 minutes. There was hope of a historic upset early in the match when Yew-Ming and Harrison held serve strongly and made some impressive winners against their opponents seeded 18th and 19th in the world, but the scratch pairing could not sustain their challenge, conceding a break in the ninth game and the set. Down 5-4 in the second, the wild card duo broke their opponents for the first time in the match, much to the crowd’s appreciation. They may have lost, but this was probably the closest a Malaysian has ever come to a victory on the ATP World Tour. “It was a great experience for me. Harrison has good energy and I feel good about the way I played. I’m happy to be back in the doubles and I would love to play in the doubles again next year,” said the 32-year-old Yew-Ming. In today’s other doubles first round matches, German Martin Emmrich and partner Andreas Siljestrom of Sweden defeated the Canadian-Slovakian duo of Adil Shamasdin and Igor Zelenay 7-5, 3-6, 10-7 in a super-tie breaker match lasting 92 minutes. Singles fifth seed Nicolay Davydenko and fellow Russian partner Teymuraz Gabashvili also saw their hopes of progression in the doubles dashed by the Czech-Brazilian pairing of Lukas Dlouhy and Marcelo Melo when they were defeated 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) in 80 minutes. All the doubles quarterfinals will be played tomorrow on Court 1 from 1.00pm onwards.
