It took until day four for John Isner and Marcos Baghdatis to complete their first round encounter which began on Tuesday at SW19. The 18th seeded American progressed through with a 7-6 (2), 7-6 (5), 6-3 victory to set up a meeting with qualifier Matthew Barton in round three.
Isner takes a one-sided tiebreaker
The match between the pair was expected to be dominated by serve, and they didn’t disappoint as neither player won a point in their first return games. The deadlock continued until the eighth game of the match, as Isner seized upon his second break point opportunity to leave him serving for a set advantage. To nearly everyone’s surprise however, the American failed to serve it out, as Baghdatis broke to find himself back on serve at 5-4. The rest of the set featured no more break point opportunities, but both found themselves being forced to hold from deuce in back-to-back games. Neither faltered, as the pair headed into an expected first tiebreaker of the match.
The 18th seed secured two mini-breaks when returning, to open up a commanding 5-0 lead. Baghdatis won his first points in the breaker on his serve to put himself into contention at 5-2 down, but was unable to put any sort of comeback together and went down 7-2. He had coped well when returning in the first set, but fell-apart in the tiebreaker to lose it in comfortable fashion.
Baghdatis fails to seize his chance in the second tiebreaker
Baghdatis was forced to save two break points in his first service game of the second set, but held superbly to go on to break for the second time in the encounter to lead 3-0. The Cypriot held two game points four games later, but was unable to convert either one and handed the break back to the tall American. This looked crucial as another tiebreaker was required, leading to Baghdatis grabbed the first mini-break this time to go up 2-1. He handed the break back immediately, but secured another to go up 4-2 and look likely to level the match at one-set all.
One again in the second set, the Cypriot dropped serve for 4-4, before losing a long rally to lose the tiebreaker 7-5 after a poorly-executed drop-shot. He had chances throughout to level the match up, but unable to take advantage and found himself with plenty of work to do to turn the match around.
Isner completes the victory
The third set continued as expected, with neither player registering a break point opportunity in the first five games as Isner led 3-2 on serve. He gave himself three break opportunities in the sixth game, converting the second to get what proved to be the break which secured the victory. He held two match points on return at 5-3, but Baghdatis dug in deep to save both and give himself one last chance to break. He was unable to threaten though, and Isner served the victory out to love to reach the second round at Wimbledon for the four consecutive year.
Thoughts on the match
As ever in a match involving John Isner, his serve proved too much for the popular-Cypriot, as he banged down 33 aces whilst his first serve was strong at 73 percent. He won a staggering 87 percent on his first delivery, hitting 24 more winners in the process.
As for Baghdatis, a first serve percentage of 53 is always going to struggle to compete with Isner, and it showed as he won 21 less points throughout the encounter. The 30-year-old made 12 less errors, but was unable to truly threaten on return enough to win a set. Next up for Isner in the second round, is Australian Matthew Barton who edged past another qualifier Albano Olivetti in a long-distance five-set match.