Cypriot reaches the final eight
Cypriot tennis star Marcos Baghdatis, currently ranked 16 in the world, reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon yesterday with a convincing straight-sets victory, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6, over Andy Murray, the UK Grand Slam competition’s remaining British entry in the men’s singles competition. This latest run by Baghdatis follows an impressive effort at last January’s Australian Open, one of the circuit’s four Grand Slam tournaments, where the Cypriot lost to the world’s number one, Roger Federer, in the final. Baghdatis will now face Australian Lleyton Hewitt, the world’s number nine, for a place in the semifinals. Hewitt, who claimed the Wimbledon title four years ago, defeated Spaniard David Ferrer in four sets, 6-4, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5, for his quarterfinal berth at the All England Club. Baghdatis needed less than two hours (113 minutes) to overcome Murray, one of the UK’s main hopes for representation at the game’s top following a lengthy absence. The Cypriot, who played a highly focused game against an opponent who was overwhelmingly backed by fans in the stands, never looked threatened, as his straight-sets victory suggests. Securing the encounter’s first and second sets to pin his opponent against the wall, Baghdatis silenced the local hero’s fans. Both players held on to their service games in the third set, taking it into a tiebreak, which Baghdatis won 7-2 for his straight-sets victory. Greek tennis player Eleni Daniilidou, who was knocked out of the women’s singles competition’s first round, advanced to the women’s doubles event’s final 16 with her Spanish partner Anabel Medina Garrigues. The Greek-Spanish pair, ranked 10th, defeated the unseeded Russian-Romanian duo of Anastassia Rodionova and Andreea Vanc in three sets, 6-2, 5-7, 6-4.
