At 32 years of age, Marcos Baghdatis has continued to break down age and physical barriers after making the Chengdu final. He beat Guido Pella 5-7 6-4 6-2 to reach his 14th ATP World Tour final.
Despite the physical battles he has had to deal with throughout his career, at the age of 32 Marcos Baghdatis has reached another ATP World Tour. In a fine week for the Cypriot he has once again proved that he has the longevity to make it deep into tournaments. Today he used that longevity to battle past Argentinian Guido Pella to reach the final in Chengdu.
The match went back in fourth as there were six breaks of serve in the first set as the winner of the set broke the other player twice to win the set. The first set saw the Argentinian capitalise on his opportunities when they came and grabbed the decisive break in the 12th game to seal the set 7-5. The Cypriot bounced back from the disappointment of the first set as he broke twice in quick succession to storm into a 4-1 lead. Despite a late Argentinian resurgence, Baghdatis grabbed the second set 6-4.
However Baghdatis took advantage of his jaded opponent and took command of the deciding set. The third set was similar to the second set as the Cypriot broke twice for a 4-1 lead. However this time Pella didn’t even create a single break point opportunity in the deciding set as the Baghdatis coasted to victory in two hours and two minutes.
A major achievement for Baghdatis as he aims to win his first title in seven years at the age of 32. He will now play Denis Istomin who overcame fifth seed Yuichi Sugita 6-2 6-7(4) 6-0 in a comfortable victory. Istomin, who achieved the biggest win of his career against Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open, will be hoping to claim the second title of his career.
It should be a fascinating final.
