Los Angeles, July 29 (DPA) Marat Safin and Marcos Baghdatis both snapped lengthy dry spells on court at the Los Angeles Open tennis to reach the second round.
Eighth-seed Safin, the former number one and two-time Grand Slam champion set to retire at age 29 in November, rode a roller coaster to put out last week’s Indianapolis winner Robby Ginepri 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
The victory gives Safin, winner of 15 titles, a modest 8-12 record for a season in which he has struggled.
“Throughout the years, you have to live with tennis 24/7. There is no way you’re gonna leave and like for days relax and not think about it. Sooner or later you’re gonna think about tennis,” he has complained.
Baghdatis, ranked 146, who lost the 2006 Australian Open final, overcame Indy semi-finalist Canadian Frank Dancevic 7-6 (7-3), 6-3 in the first round.
Safin earned his last ATP win in the first round of the French Open in late May while Baghdatis was stretchered off a court in the Netherlands a month ago, missing Wimbledon with a knee injury.
Baghdatis made a recovery in the wake of last week’s Indianapolis opening loss as he returned to tennis. The Cypriot is playing in LA for the second time, earning his first win at the venue after a defeat four years ago.
He will next face American John Isner, a winner over German fifth seed Benjamin Becker 7-6 (10-8), 7-6 (7-3).
Safin, who has complained he is bored with tennis life and desperate to try something different in life, looked like going down to his fourth first-round loss of the throwaway season.
But after dropping the first, he suddenly sprang to life to race away with the second set at the expense of Ginepri, who climbed from just inside the Top 100 to 56th this week.
Safin went up a double break in the third set, Ginepri got one back but the Russian managed to hold on, booking a second-round encounter with Latvian Ernests Gulbis, who beat Taiwan’s Yen-Hsun Lu 7-5, 6-2.
Other seeds had mixed results, with Russian number fifth Igor Kunitsyn defeating Indian qualifier Somdev Devvarman 7-5, 6-2.
Australian 205th-ranked qualifier Carsten Ball put out Frenchman Marc Gicquel 6-2, 7-5 (8-6) to next face third seed Dmitry Tursunov.
rounak