Baghdatis beats Hewitt to advance to Sydney semi-finals

By Nemanja Bjedov Published on January 14, 2010

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Marcus Baghdatis of Cyprus kisses the court following his match against Australia's Lleyton Hewitt

MARCOS Baghdatis advanced to the semi-finals of the Sydney Open yesterday after coming back from a set down to beat home favourite Lleyton Hewitt 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.

Fourth seed Hewitt was on course to reach his fifth semi-final appearance at the event after breaking the Cypriot’s serve in the third game of the opening set, which he went on to win after 51 minutes.

But Baghdatis then reeled off five straight games to level the match and continued in the same way in the decider by breaking Hewitt’s serve to take a 3-1 lead which he never looked back on.

“I am really happy with the way I played. I am feeling fit, no injuries, no pain anywhere, so I guess I will need some more matches like this to start feeling my game coming slowly, slowly back,” said Baghdatis at the press conference after the match.

“The first set and a half I was hitting the ball pretty well, and I was happy with my ball striking. Even after that, my ball striking was not too bad” commented Hewitt.

“I did not quite execute what I needed to do though. I gave him a little bit of confidence halfway through the second set and then he really started to fire up and find his spots. I did not get too many looks on his service games either,” the Australian added.

Baghdatis will take on Mardy Fish in the last four today after the American overcame Australian wild card Peter Luczak 7-6, 6-2 in his quarter-final encounter.

Baghdatis has beaten the big-serving American in both of their previous two meetings, the latest of which was only ten days ago in the opening round of the Brisbane International.