NEW HAVEN -- Marcos Baghdatis wanted to show his gratitude for receiving one of the four wild cards into the Pilot Pen Tennis tournament by contending for the men's singles title. Yet with the crowd behind him at the Stadium Court, it was apparent from the outset that Baghdatis didn't resemble the player that was once ranked eighth in the world.
Struggling with Frederico Gil's serve throughout, Baghdatis was unceremoniously eliminated in the opening round of the Pilot Pen Tennis tournament with a 6-4, 6-3 loss. Gil, a native of Portugal who worked his way into the main draw through the qualifying round, will play 12th-seeded German Philipp Petzschner in the second round. Baghdatis, meanwhile, was left wondering what went wrong.
"It was just one of those days where you get on the court and you can't find your way," said the 24-year-old from Cyprus. "It's really frustrating and I'm real sorry for the tournament. They gave me a wild card and I acted like an idiot."
Baghdatis, who was ranked eighth on the ATP World Tour in August of 2006, has struggled to return to Top-10 form after sustaining a stress fracture in his right wrist and a back injury last year. Both players held serve through the first nine games, but Gil broke with Baghdatis serving at 4-5, to take the first set.
Recognized as possessing a strong serve and forehand, Baghdatis was a victim of Gil's powerful baseline game in the second set. Painting the lines with winners and setting up Baghdatis
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Always a popular player, Baghdatis' best performance at a Grand Slam occurred when he advanced to the finals of the 2006 Australian Open where he lost to Roger Federer. He is remembered as being the last opponent that American Andre Agassi defeated in his career, a victory that came at the U.S. Open.
There will be no trip to The National Tennis Center next week for Baghdatis. He opted to not to play in the U.S. Open several weeks ago, a decision he hopes will help him get his health back.
"Right now, I'm going to go home, practice and work hard to come back," he said. "I have no pain right now, which is important. I'm just going to try my best to forget this match."
It was a good day at the Connecticut Tennis Center for Americans Kevin Kim and Robert Kendrick. The unseeded Kim, who is ranked No. 100 on the ATP World Tour, registered a 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 win against Russian Teimuraz Gabashvili in first round action at the Grandstand.
Kim, whose highest ranking was when he reached No. 63 in 2005, has a stern challenge ahead of him in the second round. He will face seventh-seeded Igor Andreev of Russia, who is currently the world's 30th ranked player.
Unseeded Kendrick, meanwhile, upended qualifier Frederik Nielsen of Denmark, 6-2, 2-6, 7-6 (5) in the second match of the day at the Stadium court. The 29-year-old from Fresno, Calif., has the unenviable task of playing top-seeded Russian Nikolay Davydenko in the second round. Ranked No. 8 in the ATP World Tour, Davydenko has garnered 16 singles titles.
Italian Potito Starace needed three sets to get past German Misha Zverev (6-3, 2-6, 6-3), as did German Bjorn Phau against fellow countryman Benjamin Becker, 2-6, 6-2, 6-3. Also winning their first round matches were Italian Simone Bolelli, who vanquished Christophe Bochus of Belgium 6-3, 6-4, Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay, who downed Andrey Golubev from Russia, 6-3, 6-4 and Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, a 6-2, 6-2 winner against Yen-Hsun Lu (Chinese Taipei).
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