Day Three: Baghdatis at home in Melbourne

Marcos Baghdatis recovered from a slow start in his second round match to advance to the third round after defeating Tatsuma Ito.

Baghdatis advances to the third round with a 3-6 6-3 6-2 where will play David Ferrer.

"I think about that amazing run (at Australian Open 2006). It’s always in the back of my head. And I’m very proud of that. But I think my game today, I think tennis since changed a lot, it’s developed a lot in different ways, and it’s a bit harder,” Baghdatis said.

“But I think I am playing even better than what I used to play.”

That certainly looked to be true when Baghdatis opened the match with an immediate break and then held break points for a 3-0 lead. Yet as Ito settled, he began to match it with, and beat, the Cypriot from the baseline. Baghdatis’ vaunted shot making was curiously absent as the smaller Japanese player – an inch shorter and eight kilograms lighter – dictated the play, breaking serve in the eighth game and then serving out the first set.

 The Cypriot soon began to wrest control of proceedings. The winners started to flow more frequently, and began approaching Ito’s tally. Although games went on serve for much of the second set, Baghdatis finally converted one of his many break point opportunities in the eighth game and promptly held serve to level the match.

In both the third and fourth sets Baghdatis went for the jugular, breaking serve at his first opportunity on both occasions. And as Ito’s game collapsed in a sea of lethargic errors – he finished with 53 – the 28th seed began to flaunt the repertoire that first lit up the courts all those years ago in Melbourne.

After serving out the match to love, he’ll be hoping those reflex passing shots, deft lobs and forcing groundstrokes help him through to the fourth round, a mark he has not reached at a Grand Slam event in four years.