Baghdatis falls short against impressive Dzumhur in Roland Garros second round

By Andreas Vou

Marcos Baghdatis was knocked out of the French Open by Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Damir Dzumhur in the second round on Wednesday, going down in four sets to the talented 23-year-old.

The Limassol native had started the tournament in impressive fashion by beating Croatia’s Ivo Karlovic in straight sets on Sunday afternoon. However, despite his latest opponent being 63 places lower than Karlovic in the ATP rankings, Baghdatis failed to muster the consistency he showed just a few days prior and was ultimately picked off by Dzumhur.

Neither player needed any motivation ahead of the game, knowing that the winner would face Roger Federer in the next round, and though it was a close fight to take down the opening set, Dzumhur eventually edged it 6-4.

Baghdatis looked affected by the late break of service suffered towards the end of the first set as he would go on to have a nightmare start to the second. Dzumhur broke Baghdatis twice in a row in the second set as well as holding his own serve to earn a 4-0 lead. The Cypriot broke back once but the damage had already been done and the Bosnian took the second set 6-3.

By this point, the odds were stacked against Baghdatis, but he would not go down without a fight. He opened with a 2-0 lead after breaking Dzumhur which made the telling difference as he went on to claim the third set 4-6 to reduce the deficit to 2-1 in sets.

In the fourth and final set, Dzumhur broke the Cypriot’s serve to make it 3-1, then Baghdatis broke straight back to make it 3-2 but it would be his final game in the match. Despite Baghdatis’ efforts, the Bosnian was a step ahead throughout the encounter and his dominance showed in the final stretch as he ruthlessly took down every remaining game to seal his passage into the next round.

The 23-year-old Bosnian now faces the biggest test of his career against Federer in the third round but, for Baghdatis, his Roland Garros run ends two rounds short of his best ever campaign in 2007.

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