Third seed Alex Dolgopolov has a tough opener at the Open de Moselle in Metz when he takes on Marcos Baghdatis today.
Baghdatis will be hoping to get his 200th career ATP win today, quite a significant milestone and he may just catch the third seed cold. These ATP 250 events can be tough for the top four seeds as they get first round byes, meaning the next match is against an opponent already used to the conditions.
Baghdatis saw off Germany’s Matthias Bachinger 7-5, 6-2 and said afterwards, he was happy to come through in straight sets. “It was a very tight first set that could have gone both ways; not because I was playing bad but because he was playing good and serving extremely well," he said. "I stayed positive and was able to manage the situation well today and I am very happy about that.”
Baghdatis leads 2-1 on the head-to-head and they split their matches last autumn with Dolgopolov winning 6-4, 6-4 on the hard courts of Beijing and Baghdatis winning 6-2, 7-6 indoors in Moscow.
"He is a great player... we know we need to be ready to play big matches at early stages of tournaments,” Baghdatis said. “I will prepare this match with my coach and hopefully it will go well for me.”
Prediction: Baghdatis is more experienced indoors and he could pull off the upset in straight sets.
