Baghdatis captures first career doubles title

MARCOS Baghdatis and Mikhail Youzhny won the Zagreb Indoors doubles title after beating local wild card entrants Ivan Dodig and Mate Pavic 6-2 6-2 in Sunday evening’s final.

The Cypriot-Russian duo, playing together for the first time last week, broke serve twice in each set and dropped just eight points on their own serve throughout as they raced to victory in 51 minutes.

“It has been a pleasure to come back here to play this week,” said Baghdatis. “I was last here in 2007 and it has been great to be back. Thanks to everyone for making it a great week and thanks to Mikhail for playing with me. Also, congratulations to him on a great tournament,” he added.

Earlier in the day, Youzhny won the singles crown by beating Slovakian Lukas Lacko 6-2 6-3. Lacko edged out Baghdatis in Saturday’s semi-final 7-5 7-6.

Baghdatis will now return to Cyprus for the Davis Cup Europe/Africa Zone Group II first round clash against Morocco from February 10-12 at the Spyros Kyprianou Athletic Centre in Limassol.

Morocco lead the overall head-to-head series 2-0, but both of their 5-0 victories over Cyprus came in the early 1990’s.

As well as Baghdatis, national team captain Yiannis Hadjigeorgiou also selected Rares Cuzdriorean, Sergis Kyratzis and Christos Hadjigeorgiou, while Moroccan team captain Mounir El Aarej opted for Mehdi Ziadi, Anas Fattar, Yassine Idmbarek and Younes Rachidi.

Should Cyprus beat Morocco, they would then take on the winner of the tie between Ukraine and Monaco in the second round which is scheduled for April.

 

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