Crowd favourite, Marcos Baghdatis has reached the second round of the Australian Open in Melbourne but not before playing one of his trademark five setters.
The Cypriot scored a 6-7, 7-6, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, victory over Spaniard Albert Ramos.
Baghdatis’ serve was a key player in the hotly contested match, with his serving percentage rising from 34 to 66 per cent, scoring eight aces in the second set.
The match lasted 4 hours and 15 minutes and was the last match to get completed on Monday night.
In the last set, it was Ramos’ legs that started to buckle first. His forehand that had been so strong earlier in the match began to let him down and left the window open for the Baghdatis.
Marcos drew on his hard-earned energy reserves and engineered a 3-1 lead in the fifth set as the Spaniard netted a backhand.
He had his first match point opportunity in the eighth game, but Ramos produced three clutch forehands to hold his serve and force Marcos to serve it out.
The Spaniard had one last attempt to derail Marcos, but failed to convert his break point opportunity and a forehand winner brought up a second match point for Marcos, which he duly took with a backhand volley winner.
Buoyed up by his supporters, Baghdatis passed the winning post, 6-3.
For Baghdadis, the Australian Open has been his most successful grand slam, reaching the finals fives years ago when he lost to Roger Federer.
Marcos goes onto face Japan’s Tatsuma Ito on Wednesday.
