Baghdatis, Fognini Fall In Nice

By James Waterson

Photo Credit: Mark Peterson/Corleve; Daniel Huerlimann/Beelde

(May 17, 2011) Marcos Baghdatis continued a poor series of results by crashing out of the first round of the Open de Nice Cote d’Azur Monday 7-6 (3), 6-2 to Julian Benneteau.

Baghdatis, the sixth-seeded Cypriot, served poorly. For the match, he had a 48 percent first serve percentage.

He may have won 70 percent of those points, but he won 44 percent of his second serve points.

That led to Benneteau breaking him three times. Although Baghdatis managed to break Benneteau once in the first set, he won only 34 percent of points on his return.

Baghdatis, the former World No. 8, now has a 8-12 record for the year, and his loss Tuesday was his seventh in the first round in 2011.

Benneteau’s next opponent is Pablo Andujar of Spain, who advanced to the second round after his opponent, Grigor Dimitrov, retired at 5-0 because of an illness.

Another seed, Fabio Fognini, fell to Latvian 22-year-old Ernests Gulbis 3-6, 6-3, 6-3. It was a much needed win for the 22-year-old, who hasn’t won two consecutive matches since January.

Denis Istomin strikes a backhand at the 2011 Open de Nice.