A day with tennis ace Marcos Baghdatis

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  • The passion of Baghdatis: Marcos motivated more than ever.

    He stormed on to the tennis scene when he made it all the way to the final at the Australian Open in 2006, before falling to Roger Federer.

    He reminded many of a young Andre Agassi at the time. Marcos Baghdatis then made the semi-finals at Wimbledon the same year – beating Andy Murray and Lleyton Hewitt en route – and rose to No8 in the world, becoming a national hero back home in Cyprus – a country that had never produced a tennis champion before.

    He then made the quarters at Wimbledon in 2007 but hasn’t reached the same stage at a major since. His career has been plagued by injuries and inconsistency but at 30 years old, the talented and fiery Baghdatis is still fighting (he beat David Ferrer this week).

    He dropped outside the world’s top 150 last year but went back to the Challenger Tour and won four titles to re-enter the top 100.

    Sport360 caught up with Baghdatis at the French Open in Paris to discuss his current goals and reflect on his career highlights.

    How do you feel when you’re back in Paris and especially at the French Open?

    I spent a lot of my time here in Paris so it’s always special coming back here in Boulogne. I have family here – for me they’re family – so it’s always nice coming back to see them. Especially now that I have my own family, coming with them over here and meeting my ‘other family’ is really special. I feel great here, feels like home.

    Andre Agassi wrote about your epic five-setter at the US Open in 2006 in his autobiography, calling it a “knife fight” and said you two lay on the physio table after the match watching the highlights and marvelling at the battle you went through. Did it feel like a loss after you put in all that effort?

    For sure it felt like a loss. I was really disappointed. I think that match hurt me a lot. But Andre was my idol. I’ve watched him play when I was young, the first match I ever saw on TV was him and Goran Ivanisevic in the final of Wimbledon in 1992.

    I was around seven, eight years old. I wanted Andre to win that match. It was kind of special, not that I lost to him, but that it was his very last US Open and I kind of accepted it a bit. I swallowed it I can say.

    The way everything happened, at the end in the locker rooms, all of a sudden everyone was there then all of a sudden nobody was there. It was just me and him.

    We were looking at the highlights of the match on TV and we just looked at each other and we shook hands. We actually held hands for a few seconds because it was emotional… really special. 

    You had an incredible Australian Open in 2006 when you made the final. You must have a special relationship with that tournament?

    For me Australia is always a really special place. I won it as a junior and playing the final in 2006 was, I think, the best thing that ever happened to me in my tennis career. It’s indescribable, it’s not easy to explain how I felt. I remember the semi-finals against David Nalbandian, I just remember the emotion, the feeling of everything, I felt drained, I felt empty.

    Does it feel that it has been nine years since you finished runner-up there?

    Sometimes when you think about it, you think it’s closer than that. You really feel it didn’t happen that long ago. But it is far, so you say ‘okay it was a long time ago’. 

    What do you think happened to your career after that?

    A lot of things. Now I think it’s not the time to talk about them… maybe do that after my career finishes. I would talk about some things, some mistakes I did. I should have avoided some things… I relaxed a bit and let go, which I shouldn’t have. But also I can understand the reasons why I let go.

    All smiles: Baghdatis and Federer.

    I had nobody experienced enough to tell me what not to do or what to do. So a lot of small things I could’ve done differently if I had more experience. 

    You also had an incredible five-setter against Novak Djokovic in the Wimbledon quarter-finals in 2007. Did you think at the time he would go on and achieve everything he has?

    Even at that time Novak – OK, maybe physically he was not that good – but tennis-wise, he was playing unbelievably. It was a five-hour-three-minute, something like that, match and I was on top of him in the fifth set. 

    I had so many chances and at five-all he broke me, I remember very well, and he won 7-5 in the fifth set. He had the ability to play so good but to go and have the career he has had, it’s really special I think, not a lot of players can do it.

    You’ve been through a lot in your career but you’re still fighting. Has your passion for the sport waned at all?

    It was up and down for sure. Right now I feel that the passion is there, if not, I wouldn’t be here and doing all this.

    Last year you went back to the Challenger Tour and ended up winning four titles in the lower tier of tennis… 

    It shows my passion for the sport, winning four Challenger titles last year. All my life I went through it fighting and finding solutions alone. 

    Challenger Tour champion.

    I’m from a small country where it’s tough to find people who have in-depth knowledge about sports. I just figured that I needed to go through where I started from. That was the main goal and I wasn’t scared of going back and trying out. It paid off well so I’m really happy I’m back.

    Where are you at now physically and what kind of goals do you have for the season?

    It’s not the right thing to say that I’m preparing for next year, but every day I’m preparing myself to be better – a better player, a better person.

    That’s my goal for now. I think when I do that I will have a lot of success in the future. I’m 30 years old, I think I have another four or five years in my legs. 

    One thing that is typical for your matches, especially in Australia, is the atmosphere created by your fans from Cyprus and Greece. How does it feel to have such backing and being a pioneer in the sport in your country?

    The proudest moment I have is bringing kids into tennis in Cyprus. Because taking them away from other bad things and bringing them into sport I think that’s the greatest thing I have ever achieved. 

    The street (named after him back home) and everything else, all that is not very important for me. But this is. That’s why I’m proud of what I’ve done.

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