Marcos Baghdatis admits that nerves played a part in his final defeat to Stan Wawrinka in Dubai on Saturday night but the Cypriot knows he can soon close out such tight contests, the more often he competes at that level.
Baghdatis, who was looking for his first title since 2010, was the first to claim a service break in the final and had five set points in the second set tiebreak but could not convert and ended up losing 6-4, 7-6 (13) to the World No.4.
“Nerves for sure. Before the final, I didn’t play at this level – I mean, Wawrinka is No.4 in the world. He’s playing at this level for a long time. It’s not the same, you know, facing a guy who beat the top-four and he is in the top-four. So, yeah, a lot of things go through your mind the night before and day of the match,” explained Baghdatis.
“It’s not that you don’t believe but all these things goes through, and you go into the match and then you see a way, I’m 3-2 up, I’m serving, like I’m a break up.
“So a lot of things go through your mind. I think I need to play more at this level so I can start controlling my nerves and my serve from the beginning of the matches.”
Congratulations to our 2016 #DDFtennis Champion @stanwawrinka ! #Twittermirror pic.twitter.com/73YPTdyvYd
— Dubai Tennis Champs (@DDFTennis) February 27, 2016
The 30-year-old has re-entered the top-40 though, for the first time since 2013, and is hoping he can once again find the form that took him to the 2006 Australian Open final.
Baghdatis took out seeds No4 (Roberto Bautista Agut), No5 (Viktor Troicki) and No6 (Feliciano Lopez) en route to the final in Dubai and has his eyes on a top-30 ranking next.
“I have been playing very well throughout last year, too. I think I had some great matches also last year,” said Baghdatis, who ended 2015 inside the top-50.
“Last year, I lost 11 times to the winner of the tournament, three times to the finalist of the tournament.
“This year I lost four matches. Three of them are to the winner of the tournaments. So I think I’m playing very good tennis. It’s just this week I think I was a bit lucky and I went through the quarter-finals and the semi-finals, you know. I found my way to win.
“I didn’t win the tournament this week but I won a lot more. I won my confidence back.
“I see, with my team we see the way to come back. It’s a small light that we see in the tunnel.
“We come from a long way back. I’m happy I’m back and playing this kind of tennis now. It’s just to continue improving, and play at this level throughout the year.”
