My pal Richard Hinds, of The Age (check out his witty ruminations on Roger Federer here), made an interesting point when we were chatting about the Big Story of the 2006 Australian Open, Marcos Baghdatis. He's in the semis now, having prevailed over Ivan Ljubicic in a five-set war.
Hinds thinks that we’ve unconsciously pigeon-holed Baghdatis as a novelty – an exotic entertainer from an exotic place (Cyprus), who adds a little color to tennis tournaments.
It’s a good point, and it underscores how perilous it can be to trade in stereotypes. It all starts with the name: Marcos Baghdatis is a name fit for a pirate, or a triple-agent from Tripoli. The hirsute look and diamond earring don’t exactly scream Tommy Tennis either, even though rock star scruffy always plays well with fashion victims and arty types who salivate over anything “edgy.”
And what about that game – it’s too inventive, too magical to be mistaken for an appropriately lethal Grand Slam tool, right? It belongs in the market in Marrakech, with the snake charmers and somersaulting street urchins.
Well, say goodbye to all those pleasantly vivid clichés. Baghdatis is a fully realized competitor with a diverse, purposeful game. We should have known, of course, from two clues: Baghdatis was the world’s No. 1 junior in 2003 – you don’t do that with smoke and mirrors. The other hint: The implications of his personal history as a youth who left home at 14 to develop his game. Baghdatis spent a lot of time as a lonely kind in France; it helped shape the competitor he is today.
An offhanded remark Baghdatis made in his presser after he beat Ivan Ljubicic in a fine five-setter last night spoke volumes of the sacrifices he's has had to make. After confirming that, yes, he is a soccer fan, he was asked how much he enjoyed Greece winning the European championships last year.
He replied, Yeah, yeah, I was alone in France in my bedroom, Not so fun.
In fact, my neighbor here in the press room, Guy Barbier, the editor-in-chief of France’s TENNIS magazine, told me that not long after Baghdatis arrived to live and train at the Mouratoglou Tennis Academy in Paris, the French were having second thoughts about having him on board. Baghdatis was crying every day, seemingly incapable of overcoming his homesickness.
The atmosphere at the Baghdatis-Ljubicic match was electric, with huge contingents of Croatian and Greek/Cypriot/Lebanese fans engaging in the pastime of choice at the AO: making an enormous fool of yourself yelling, singing, chanting and generally offering to do anything, including take a bullet, for your tennis-warrior countryman.
Baghdatis took a lot of inspiration from the presence of his supporters; this is a guy who’s spent his earliest – and invariably toughest – days on the tour as a stranger in a strange land, having to do everything for himself, with no built-in support group of coaches, journalists, or fellow players (as the Argentineans or French have).
However, the idea that there was dose of poetic justice in the way Baghdatis's fans carried him along on a wave of support was blunted by the fact that Ljubicic isn’t just another milk-fed hunk of veal churned out by some tennis academy or national tennis program, either. Still, where Ljubicic is dour, introspective, alarmingly close to appearing depressed, Baghdatis is extroverted, expressive and capable of living for the moment – and taking emotional energy out of it. I think that made a difference at crunch time, in the fifth set.
The thing that struck me about Baghdatis was the solidity of his game. Creative players of his stripe (Hicham Arazi comes to mind) often lack the ability to play with enough discipline and efficiency to win big, tight matches against quality opponents. But there was nothing extraneous or meretricious in Baghdatis’s game last night. He was all business.
Baghdatis gets David Nalbandian next; I think the big difference could be Nalbandian's late-stage Grand Slam experience. In terms of how their games match up - well, Nalbandian makes a living picking every last scrap of flesh off the bone of his opponent's game. It will be interesting to see how Baghdatis reacts to that peculiar kind of presure.