MONACO BEATS MARCOS

Juan Martin Del Potro’s countryman, Juan Monaco, has been defeated by Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus in the second round of the Rakuten Japan Open at Tokyo. Baghdatis won the match by 5-7, 6-1, 3-6.

Monaco who was given the fourth seed in the competition was expected to win the match without having much difficulty, but, that was not the case to be. Baghdatis backed himself and pulled off a great upset. This was the second match between these two players and Baghdatis defeated Monaco for the first time.

After winning the match, Baghdatis said, “I love to play in Japan open. Japan is a wonderful place to play tennis and the fans over here are so intelligent and supportive.”

“It always gives you immense satisfaction when you beat one of the top 10players in the world. I came into the match thinking positively and I tried to play to my strengths. In the second set, Monaco played some incredible shots.”

“It was pretty crucial to make a good start in the final set and luckily, I got it. After that, it was just the matter of not losing the serve.”

In the opening set, Baghdatis held his entire serves and he latched on the only breakpoint that he got in the 11^th game to win the first set by 7-5.

In the second set, Monaco was on fire. He made a brilliant start and broke Baghdatis’ service in the second and the fourth game to take a lead of 5-0. Baghdatis held his serve in the 6^th game, but, that didn’t make any difference to the end result of the set. Monaco wrapped up the set by serving out the seventh game.

But, Monaco didn’t manage to carry on the momentum in the final set. His service was broken in the second game and at the end of the third game, he was trailed by 0-3. He wasn’t able to level the scores after that and lost the match.

In the third round, Baghdatis will play against Dmitry Tursunov of Russia.