Marcos Baghdatis takes on Somdev Devvarman for a place in the Malaysian Open quarter-finals.
Baghdatis notched his 200th ATP win at the Malaysian Open on Monday, taking out sixth seed Alex Bogomolov Jnr 7-6(3), 6-4 in just under two hours. “You don’t think about it (getting the 200th win),” Baghdatis said. “It is the first round so you just go in and try your best. Alex played well tonight so I had to up my game a little. It was very even, but I managed to get that little bit of an edge over him.”
It's a nice boost for the Cypriot who looked like he was coming back into form in Metz last week, losing a close three setter to third seed Alexandr Dolgopolov.
Devvarman looked fairly unconvincing in an opening round 7-6, 6-4 win over Russian qualifier Mikhail Ledovskikh. However he will be confident in the knowledge that he's always given Baghdatis problems.
Baghdatis leads 2-1 on the head-to-head with all three matches coming over the past couple of years. They have met twice in 2011 with Devvarman triumphing 7-5, 6-0 in the desert conditions of Indian Wells and Baghdatis winning 6-2, 0-6, 7-5 in Washington.
Prediction: It will not be easy for Baghdatis again but he'll come through in three sets.
