Baghdatis fails to reach BMW Open final

 

MARCOS Baghdatis lost to the top seeded Croatian Marin Cilic 6-3, 2-6, 3-6 in the semifinals of the ATP World tour 250 BMW Open in cloudy Munich yesterday afternoon.

The 24-year-old Cypriot served to open the proceedings and after three service games he was leading by two games to one. The fourth game was the longest one in the opener and Baghdatis managed to finish it in style as he volleyed the ball into the open field to convert his third break opportunity and take a 3-1 lead, despite surviving a scare midway the game when he over extended his left knee after rushing out to the net to catch a drop shot by Cilic. The Cypriot eventually served out the first set in 45 minutes of playing time.

Cilic jumped out to a 4-1 lead in the second set after breaking Baghdatis’ serve in the fourth service game using his only break chance so far in the match. The fifth seeded Cypriot then kept his serve in the sixth game to pile up pressure on Cilic, but the Croatian kept his cool and forced the decider at 6-2 as Baghdatis gifted him another break of serve after committing his first double fault of the match to close down the set.

A single break of serve proved to be more than enough for Cilic to clinch the final set at 6-3 and advance to the final after two hours and 15 minutes.

In his first clay final of the season Cilic will take on the World’s No. 15 Mikhail Youzhny of Russia who overcame Philipp Petzschner of Germany 7-5, 7-6(5) in his semifinal encounter. Cilic and Youzhny met three times so far on the tour and the Russian leads their head-to-head series 3-0; however, they have never played each other on the clay courts. The last meeting between the two was in the first round of the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Rogers Cup 2009 in Toronto.

 

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