Baghdatis faces Soeda in US open first round

By Nemanja Bjedov

Marcos Baghdatis has been drawn to take on Japanese qualifier Go Soeda – who dropped just one set in three qualifying matches to earn his place in the main draw – in the first round of the U.S. Open on Tuesday evening.

The 28-year-old Cypriot defeated world number 132 Soeda in their only previous meeting at last year’s London 2012 Olympics on grass.

If Baghdatis overcomes the Japanese, he would then set up a second-round contest with either the 17th seed South African Kevin Anderson or Daniel Brands of Germany.

Should the Limassol native reach the third round, he would set up a likely contest with ninth seed Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland, with the winner seeded to meet fifth-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych in the fourth round.

This will be the eighth appearance for the 28-year-old Cypriot at Flushing Meadows, and he is bidding to get past the second round for the first time.

Baghdatis holds a 11-16 record this season after suffering 11 first-round exits from the last 12 tournaments.

Earlier this month, he reached the quarterfinals in Washignton, but after the Cincinnati elimination that followed, he decided to skip the Winston-Salem event, the ultimate US Open series test, citing personal reasons.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.