Baghdatis and Melzer roll on in Malaysia

Written by: Global Chick on 29th September 2011

Baghdatis and Melzer roll on in Malaysia |

Cypriot wildcard Marcos Baghdatis was too good for Somdev Devvarman of India in the second round today at the Malaysian Open, Kuala Lumpur.

Baghdatis spent one hour and 46 minutes on court today with Devvarman before closing the match 7-5 6-4. “It’s tough conditions here, very slow and you have to work the point and just find a way to win. I’m looking forward to the next one and trying to find the solution to win,” Baghdatis said. The former top ten player can expect tough competition from Austria’s Jurgen Melzer in the quarterfinals. Melzer and Baghdatis have met only once before and that was at the Australian Open this year. Melzer was leading when Baghdatis had to pull out.

Jurgen Melzer overpowered South African qualifier Rik de Voest 6-0 6-4 today. “I started really well. The first set was one of the best sets I’ve played all year for sure. I’m feeling really good here, hopefully it can continue. The conditions are very slow but if you have enough power it can give you a little more time to set up for your shots and go for some winners, which is nice for my game,” the Austrian said.

Dmitry Tursunov of Russia is the only other player through to the quarterfinals in Kuala Lumpur so far. The Russian defeated Belgian wildcard David Goffin 6-3 6-3 in 83 minutes. Tursunov will face the winner of Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan and the number two seed Viktor Troicki of Serbia. Istomin had a comfortable first round win over Australian qualifier Marinko Matosevic 6-3 6-2.

Young rising star Bernard Tomic failed to show his normal form after being put down by Italy’s Flavio Cipolla 6-2 6-2. Cipolla’s second round battle will be with the number three seed Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia who had a first round bye.

SCHEDULE – THURSDAY, 29 SEPTEMBER, 2011

CENTER COURT start 1:00 pm

D Istomin (UZB) vs [2] V Troicki (SRB)

L Kubot (POL) vs [5] N Davydenko (RUS)

P Petzschner (GER) vs [8] K Nishikori (JPN)

Not Before 6:30 PM

[1] N Almagro (ESP) vs A Ramos (ESP)

[3] J Tipsarevic (SRB) vs F Cipolla (ITA)

COURT 1 start 1:00 pm

[3] F Cermak (CZE) / F Polasek (SVK) vs M Emmrich (GER) / A Siljestrom (SWE)

M Ebden (AUS) / B Tomic (AUS) vs [4] S Lipsky (USA) / R Ram (USA)

L Dlouhy (CZE) / M Melo (BRA) vs [2] E Butorac (USA) / J Rojer (AHO)