Cypriot wild card Marcos Baghdatis made an emphatic start to his Sony Ericsson Open campaign with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Latvian Ernests Gulbis on Wednesday at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tennis tournament in Miami.
The 23-year-old Baghdatis fired seven aces and converted four of six break point opportunities to secure his fourth victory (4-0 record) over Gulbis in 80 minutes. He goes on to face French No. 31 seed Paul-Henri Mathieu in the second round.
“I know the guy (Gulbis) doesn't give rhythm,” said Baghdatis. “He's smacking all the balls around. So I just played point per point. [I] just tried to put the ball back as many times as I could. It's not easy playing guys like that. He came with lots of unforced errors. That's the way I had to play today, so I'm pretty happy I did it good and I won and I'm in the next round.”
Currently ranked No. 105 in the South African Airways 2009 ATP Rankings, Baghdatis was restricted to just 12 tournaments in an injury-ridden 2008 season. The former No. 8 (August 21, 2006) has an 11-6 match record in 2009, highlighted by quarter-final showings at Johannesburg (l. to Ferrer) and Delray Beach) and a run to the Australian Open fourth round (l. to Djokovic).
Two American qualifiers also advanced on Wednesday. Robert Kendrick defeated Frenchman Arnaud Clement 6-3, 7-6(5) to set up a second round meeting with Swedish No. 21 seed Robin Soderling. The 85th-ranked California native reached the third round (l. to Murray) on his Sony Ericsson Open main draw debut in 2007. Kevin Kim progressed when his opponent Michael Llodra retired with a groin injury after winning the first set 6-3. World No. 107 Kim will next meet No. 2 Roger Federer.
However, wild card Brendan Evans could not match his countrymen’s success as he bowed out to Jan Hernych 4-6, 3-6. Hernych will face 15th seed Tommy Robredo in the second round.
(From Website : http://www.atpworldtour.com/TENNIS/1/EN/NEWS/NEWSARTICLE_2794.ASP)
