07.02.2013.
Baghdatis lost, Petzschner defeated Marcan
Former PBZ Zagreb Indoors champion Marcos Baghdatis, who won in Dom sportova in 2007. and reached semifinals last season, lost this year already in the second round. Cypriot was defeated by Blaz Kavcic by 3:6, 7:6 (2), 6:4 and this will be third career quarterfinal for 25-years old Slovenian player.
Baghdatis was close to another victory in Zagreb, serving for the match at 6:3, 5:4, but failed to close out. After winning the second set in tie breaker Kavcic broke at the start of the third set and kept the advantage, savig break point at 3:2 and again at 4:3.
After the loss Baghdatis pulled out of the doubles competition – Cypriot and Russian Mikhail Youzhny were defending champions in Zagreb.
„I felt pain in my right leg during the first round match. I just did not want to take a risk after such a long match I played against Kavcic. I had a chance to win, I served for the match, but all credits to Kavcic. I missed a lot of opportunities in the third set, but that is the way things go in tennis sometimes“, Baghdatis said.
Kavcic played twice in the quarterfinals at ATP events, in Chennai and Bastad in 2011. A few weeks ago he achieved his best result so far at any Grand Slam tournament in singles, reaching the third round at the Australian Open in Melbourne.
Along with Baghdatis, another seeded player lost on Thursday. It was Martin Klizan from Slovakia, who was beatn by Robin Haase by 6:2, 4:6, 6:4. This will be the third quarterfinal in Zagreb for Haase. Is he going to go beyond that point for the first time will be decided on Friday as he takes on Philipp Petzschner. German won in straight sets against Croatian lucky loser Dino Marcan, replacement for second-seeded Italian Andreas Seppi, who withdrew due to illness.
Fourth-seeded Jurgen Melzer came one win away from clinching the 300th singles victory, but only after big battle against Somdev Devvarman, winning 1:6, 7:6 (5), 6:2. Devvarman led 5-3 in the tie breaker but then lost four points in a row.