Ferrer retrieves everything

David Ferrer, the fourth seed and Marcos Baghdatis the 28th seed were sure to give us value for money in terms of number of shots played.
With these two on court no tennis ball was safe from being struck no matter how far away it was from either player.
The lengths with which David and Marco go to remain in a point of tennis are extraordinary.  I believe David would even give Marcos the money for a Myki card in order to catch a train to Footscray to reach a backhand that has been hit there.

The baseline slugfest promised to us was delivered as the two players brought their respective wares to the table.  Ferrer appeared the more polished, as to be expected considering his pedigree highlighted with numerous semis and quarters at major tournaments.

Baghdatis of course has been around for several years and battled injuries and form loss to again be a top 20 or 30 player.  He has some historic performances at this venue.  He showed with less finesse that Ferrer would need to be on his mettle to ensure his seeding remained justified.

A careless Marcos loss focus in the fourth game and Ferrer capitalised to gain the vital initial break of serve and consolidated to lead 4-2 with his serve to come.
Here some of the unorthodox in Baghdatis added to some unusually loose Ferrer shot making conspired to create the break back and games were on serve 3-4.  They would remain there and head for a tie break or so we thought and hoped.  Marcos saved a set point but blew the next one and the biggest sigh of relief came from Ferrer as he took the first set 6-4.

Set 2 belonged to Ferrer as he controlled the rallies making minimal errors while watching Marcos do the opposite.  The break in the fourth game shattered Marcos whose shot execution on nearly all the vital points was abysmal.  Chances to come back in the seventh game were wasted and Ferrer as an elite player will do punished such waste by breaking Marcos again the very next game with excellent forehands and general court coverage to win the set 6-2.

Although Baghdatis played a much better third set and had chances throughout he again was woeful on the key points, breaking once in the third game to have the games on serve but losing serve in the fourth to remain effectively out of the match as Ferrer played confidently and with presence of mind matching all of the Baghdatis attacks.

A fairly impressive win for the fourth seed Ferrer 6-4 6-3 6-2 which could have been made tougher had Marcos put his mind to the important moments better.