World number two Rafael Nadal, playing his first match since
finishing the Australian Open injured last month, survived a tough
first round test against Marcos Baghdatis at the Dubai Open on
Tuesday.
Nadal's 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 win over the in-form world number 17 from
Cyprus earned him a place in the second round in defence of his
title.
But for a while it looked as though the chances of a repeat
encounter between the young French Open champion and triple Grand
Slam titleholder Roger Federer would be halted at the first
obstacle.
Baghdatis started superbly, discreetly varying the pace from
behind the baseline, and suddenly pitching in with flat, flashing
drives projected at sharp angles.
But after giving Nadal the chances to break early in both the
second and third sets - serving double faults in the third game of
each - he found himself increasingly under pressure from an
opponent who played more aggressively than he had in Australia.
"When you have everything under control and then you put an
opponent like him in the match and he gets confident and plays
deeper and makes you move more, mentally you say 'shit'" said
Baghdatis.
"My problem is not my tennis. My problem is consistency in the
head. The head is not there. Mentally I am not tough."
There was no question that Nadal was mentally tough. He did not
panic, either at getting so difficult an opponent after such a
break, or at going a set down.
He concentrated on serving a little heavier and getting in with
fiercer forehand follow-ups, several times making openings which he
took skillfully at the net.
"This was my best match of the year," Nadal reckoned. "Getting
your rhythm when you have not had competition is difficult, but I
was feeling not bad.
"To start with he was playing better than me but I felt better
and better and I was more aggressive with my forehand and I was
serving good too. I was not too afraid of this match because I was
practising well."
Nadal next plays Igor Andreev, who was Russia's Davis Cup hero
earlier this month, while Federer, who also struggled to get
through the first round in three sets Monday will play Daniele
Bracciali.
Another seed to go out was David Ferrer, the number four from
Spain, who was beaten 7-6 (15/13), 6-1 by Robin Soderling, the
improving Swede, despite having five set points in a 28-point
tie-breaker.
This followed the departure the previous day of another
Spaniard, the fourth-seeded Tommy Robredo, which means that both
seeds in the third quarter of the draw are out. If Nadal reaches
the semi-finals he will have an unseeded opponent.
Two other seeds, Nikolay Davydenko of Russia and Tommy Haas of
Germany did well to survive, after looking in trouble for different
reasons.
Davydenko was ambushed by Younes El Aynaoui, the 35-year-old
wild card from Morocco who was seeking only his fifth win on the
main tour in more than three years after a long sequence of
injuries.
Davydenko eventually survived 6-7 (2/7), 7-5, 7-5, but only
after El Aynaoui, serving brilliantly and taking all sorts of
well-judged risks with his excellent forehand, had recovered from
deficits of 1-3 in the second set and 1-4 in the third, and fully
tested the phlegmatic third seed's temperament.
Haas had just flown all the way from Memphis, where he won the
title, which has a ten-hour time difference, arriving at 1.30 am on
the morning of his match with Radek Stepanek, the top 20 Czech. Yet
the fifth-seeded German prevailed 6-4, 6-3.
"I survived a 17-hour journey," said Haas on court after his
jet-lag defying success. "Who cares what time it is if you are
playing all right?"
(China Daily via AFP February 28, 2007)