Marcos Baghdatis takes out Roger Federer in three sets

By Diane Pucin / Los Angeles Times
Wednesday, March 17, 2010 - Added 4h ago

Photo by AP

Marcos Baghdatis, of Cyprus, returns a shot to Roger Federer, of Switzerland, during their match at the BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament in Indian Wells, Calif., Tuesday.

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Roger Federer does this. He hits a crosscourt forehand that seems headed for out of bounds until it touches the sideline. The shot comes all of a sudden just when the opponent, say, Marcos Baghdatis on a Tuesday night in the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, thinks he might have a chance to trouble the world’s top-ranked player before a tournament gets to its biggest moments.

Federer usually doesn’t do this though. He doesn’t usually win a set then throw in huge handfuls of unforced errors. He doesn’t usually give himself extra work. He doesn’t usually lose.

On Tuesday night, though, Federer let his game go away for a set against Baghdatis and he couldn’t get it back. With a monstrous service winner and on his first match point, Baghdatis took out the tournament’s top-seeded player, 5-7, 7-5, 7-6 (7-4), in 2 hours 22 minutes.

Federer walked off the court with a stunned look on his face while Baghdatis sent happily hit tennis balls to the crowd.

This win had seemed unlikely in the fourth game of the third set when, with a flick of Federer’s racket, he broke Baghdatis’s serve to go up, 4-1. With that little edge, Federer regained control of his shots for awhile but not for long enough. Federer gave back the break and then played an uncertain tiebreak, unable to hit the ball past the constantly moving Baghdatis.

It was unexpected to see Federer’s nonchalant brilliance disappear with a bundling of unforced errors, 44 for the match.

Federer could never quite corral his forehand or harness that signature one-handed backhand .

The stylish Baghdatis wouldn’t go away, even after Federer went ahead, 4-1, in the third set. In the seventh game Baghdatis brought the crowd to its feet with a wicked backhand winner to get back on serve, 4-3.

Baghdatis had saved two match points in the second set and had seemed destined for a loss when Federer broke first in the third.

By the eighth game of the final set, when it was tied, 4-4, Baghdatis had gained such confidence that he would bend over and yell at himself after he was unable to retrieve an acrobatic volley from Federer.

The biggest name left in the women’s draw also had a hiccup of her own.

Second-seeded Caroline Wozniacki said she felt as if her legs were moving in slow motion in the second set. But those weary legs went back to work after Wozniacki said she talked to them. The Danish teenager stayed around with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-0 win over Nadia Petrova.

Wozniacki’s win was a boost for a women’s draw that is already without its top-seeded player (Svetlana Kuznetsova), its third-seeded player (Victoria Azarenka) and its two biggest draws (Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin).

It was also an uneventful day for the top American left in the draw, man or woman. Seventh-seeded Andy Roddick was hardly tested in a 6-3, 6-4 win over Thiemo De Bakker of the Netherlands. There was so little of note in the win that Roddick was asked more about what sports he likes to watch outside of tennis. Whatever is in season, Roddick said, and the season now is NCAA basketball.

Fourth-seeded Andy Murray ran into the net post while trying to retrieve a Michael Russell drop shot and gave himself a black-and-blue toe, but Murray advanced with a 6-3, 7-5 win and sixth-seeded Robin Soderling also moved along without a hitch, beating Spain’s Feliciano Lopez 7-6 (7-3), 6-4.

Ninth-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga did have some moments of doubt. His head was hanging after one set but with a raucous crowd cheering him on, Tsonga moved on, winning, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, over Albert Montanes of Spain.