The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Baghdatis back in happy hunting ground

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Sunday, Jan 14, 2007
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Baghdatis back in happy hunting ground

Melbourne : Marcos Baghdatis arrived at his Melbourne hotel and quickly received a reminder of how close he came to winning his first Grand Slam: a replay of his loss to Roger Federer in the 2006 Australian Open final was playing on television.

``It was a great run, that's for sure,'' Baghdatis said of his surprise performance last year when he beat Andy Roddick, Ivan Ljubicic and David Nalbandian to get to Federer.

``It was a good experience. I was a bit disappointed then that I lost. But, I mean, it's 12 months ago ... life continues.''

And life is good. Ranked 56th leading into the last Australian Open, he's now 11th. That means he won't have to face the same top players he ended up beating in the first week last year.

Added pressure

But if there's added pressure, there's also added enhancements to his game, Baghdatis says. ``I've improved myself a lot physically,'' he said. ``I feel tougher, more experienced now. I'm playing good. I'm ready. Guess I'll just go on the court, fight for every match.''

Baghdatis had a calf muscle injury at the Sydney International during the week. He said although he thought initially the injury was more serious, he'll be fine for his first-round match against 2003 finalist Rainer Schuettler of Germany.

``I was scared a bit in the beginning,'' said Baghdatis. ``Then seeing myself getting through, the pain was slowly, slowly disappearing, I felt better. It's much better now ... nothing to worry.''

Eventful off-season

Serena Williams had a very eventful off-season, both good and bad.

She made her first trip to Africa — Senegal and Ghana; on the down side, she had to sit through a breach-of-contract lawsuit trial involving the Williams family. ``Africa was amazing,'' Williams said on Saturday as she prepared for her first-round match at the Australian Open against 27th-seeded Mara Santangelo of Italy.

``I think my dream in life has always been to go. I was able to see things that I've always wanted to see, visit people, just go to I feel my home country. It was exciting for me to go ... a really moving experience more than anything.''

The trial involved a lawsuit by two tennis promoters who sued Serena and Venus Williams, their father, Richard, and his company, Richard Williams Tennis & Associates, for breach of contract in a proposed 2001 ``Battle of the Sexes'' match.

On December 21, a jury found that Richard Williams fraudulently represented himself in the deal — but the panel awarded no damages. The jury also found the sisters weren't negligent in the deal and no damages were levied against them. ``It was tough, spending the better part of seven weeks of your training in court everyday,''said Serena. — AP

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