TTW loves Baghdatis <3

The Blond Blur

G.O.A.T.
Baggy when he gets called weak competition :mad:

DearestBlandIrishterrier-size_restricted.gif
 

King No1e

G.O.A.T.
In all seriousness this is one of my favorite tennis memories ever. It was the first time I went out of my way to watch early round action and it did not disappoint.
Might be the most one-sided crowd I've ever seen in my life. Incredible atmosphere for an incredible last win!
 

King No1e

G.O.A.T.
Baggy was one of the purest ballstrikers in the game, and also one of the nicest guys on tour. I'd say he underachieved a bit given his talent, but he gave us some truly epic moments to remember.

-The AO06 dream run, beating Roddick, Nalbandian from 2 sets down, and giving Peak Federer a run for his money
- USO06 classic match vs Agassi, playing through cramps but coming up short in the end
- The AO08 "early-morning" thriller vs Hewitt
- Beating both Federer and Nadal in epic fashion in 2010
 

kevin qmto

Hall of Fame
I can’t find any highlights, but Baggy have Khachanov a run for his money at Wimbledon 2018 in a match nearly everyone thought would be straight sets. Baggy pushed him to 5.

this was after baggy took out Theim (who retired in the early in the 3rd set, but only started showing signs of faltering in the 2nd set tiebreak, Baggy played like his 2006 self in the 1st set, and it’s a shame no highlights are on YouTube)
 
P

PETEhammer

Guest
Bagdhatis
Philippousis
Bjorkman
Bogdanovic
Kiefer
Gravinboginagis

Cilic
Ancic
Ferrero
Robredo
Paire
Haire

Ok, last one is made up but still this is like vocal therapy...can Fedfans honestly blame us for bringing these players up whenever possible?
 
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duaneeo

Legend
Yes, his name is said here more than anyone else, and we all know which fanbase is the reason for that.

That said, Baghdatis was an exciting young presence. His run to the AO final has to be among the most impressive this century for a young player, and he backed it up with a run to the Wimbledon semifinal.
 

Wilhelm

Hall of Fame
Marcos is the pro I would most like to hang out with. A down to earth family man who likes to brag about his barbecue skills :cool:

As for his game, he was always inconsistent, but he thrived in the fast court era with his accurate, low-spin, all-court game full of touch and variety. Like Tommy Haas, he has many of the qualities I miss in today‘s tennis.
 
D

Deleted member 22147

Guest
He was just as good or better in 2007/09. Tour just became cutthroat competitive. Didn't play much in 2008 because of injuries.

I completely disagree. He only really showed his highest level in two events, Basel 2005 and AO 2006. He was **** poor in the years you mentioned. A bit of a flash in the pan, he was not very professional. His shape was pathetic.
 
I completely disagree. He only really showed his highest level in two events, Basel 2005 and AO 2006. He was **** poor in the years you mentioned. A bit of a flash in the pan, he was not very professional. His shape was pathetic.
W/L
2005 39/22
2006 37/20
2007 48/19
2008 20/14 (barely played, injury)
2009 40/19 (gets back/plays challengers even)
2010 43/27 goes downhill from there...
He wasn't much more consistent in 2005/06. Give him Ljubicic or some other has-been in 2007 W QF instead of Djokovic and he'd be through. Also went deep in a couple of strong tournaments that year.

Anyway, I like guy's game and appreciate all those flashes in the pan he had. Even when he was completely out of shape near the end of his career, he produced some memorable matches against younger, fit opponents, like R2 of USO in 2018 with Pouille.
 

ibbi

G.O.A.T.
I do. For a few years he was one of the THE players to watch (that year he knocked Muzz out of Wimbledon was sweeeeeet), and even lingering on into the 10s as injuries took their toll, and he got fat and lazy you'd still see these matches every now and then where he'd just casually give some genuinely notable players hell, or even go so far as to kick their ass up and down the street and remind everyone what a magician he was.

One of those true nutcases of the Federer era who would range from the sublime to the ridiculous. Also, though it probably wasn't much fun to live through for the locals, watching his Australian Open matches when he was hot was something.
 

RelentlessAttack

Hall of Fame
People who weren’t around probably forget that Baghdatis isn’t part of Federer’s generation, he was viewed as a top prospect coming up with the Djokodal generation. He was one year older than Nadal and 2 older than Djokovic. Until Djokovic’s septum surgery, Baggy was clearly ahead in results, and even once Nole was ascendant in 2007 Baggy stretched him to the limit at W07. The problem is he was he wasn’t focused, emotionally unstable on the court, and not serious about improving his game and fitness, so he faded quickly.

The story of Federer’s generation was also different than people seem to imply. It’s not that there was a Gen useless tier group of mugs talent wise. These guys like JCF, Safin, Nalby, Haas, Scud, etc either everyone had some major career derailing injury (JCF, Scud, Haas) or they weren’t serious about tennis (Nalby) or both (Safin). That left Roddick and Hewitt as the most successful of the generation besides Federer but they were more limited than a lot of the guys that came up with them in terms of skillset

Federer was also the first of 3 major beneficiaries of surface homogenization and court slowdowns because a lot of the talented guys his age grew up with different surfaces and courts.

I’m also firmly of the belief that the Djokodal generation is so successful because they learned to play without Poly but adopted it early enough to develop suitable games, and still had high swing weights. Gen useless and NextGen came up with progressively lower swing weights and poly and you see that it’s resulted in a number of weaknesses, most easily noticeable on ROS amongst most of the top prospects.
 
belief that the Djokodal generation is so successful because they learned to play without Poly but adopted it early enough to develop suitable games, and still had high swing weights. Gen useless and NextGen came up with progressively lower swing weights and poly and you see that it’s resulted in a number of weaknesses, most easily noticeable on ROS amongst most of the top prospects.

Bolded: absolutely correct and an underrated point. That is particularly visible vs the lost gens who were supposed to supplant them: it is literally heavyweights playing against mid weights. Not sure whether they learned to play without poly: their higher SWs were definitely developed with poly in mind. They are different than the old classical style of racquets that are higher static weight and more balanced (obviously still a lot higher SW than the modern top players). Federer got shortchanged twofold in the equipment department: not only did he learn to play with smaller head size heavy racquet, but his main competitors got in just in time to utilise fully oversize racquets with poly (obviously their different racquet sponsors had something to do with it as well, especially Nadal with his APDO).

:cool:
 
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