Baghdatis beaten in Istanbul

Marcos Baghdatis has been beaten on his return to the ATP Tour, going down 7-5-6-4 to fifth seed Viktor Tricki of Serbia at the Istanbul Open.

The Cypriot hadn’t played on the tour since the Australian Open, where he lost in the second round to Spain’s Rafa Nadal.

The former world number eight was suffering from a leg injury.

The 31-year-old recently featured in back-to-back ATP Challenger events in Asia – the Santaizi ATP Challenger event (April 17-23) in Taiwan and the Kunming Open (April 24-30 in China).

He is now back in Europe to play the Istanbul Open and then the Madrid Masters (May 7-14).

On Friday, Baghdatis’ record-breaking run of 36 consecutive Davis Cup wins, which stretched back 14 years, was ended when the Cypriot veteran lost to Tunisia’s Moez Echargui.

Baghdatis had eclipsed the previous record in the competition of 33 wins in a row, held by Swedish legend Bjorn Borg, in March 2016.

But his luck ran out on Friday when he lost 7-5, 7-6 (7/2,), 4-6, 4-6, 6-1 to Echargui in a Europe/Africa zone play-off match in Nicosia.

Baghdatis’ last Davis Cup loss was in 2003 against Irakli Labadze of Georgia.

Baghdatis, who started the year at number 36 in the world, has dropped to number 54.

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