The draw for the Australian Open was made on Friday in Melbourne, with No. 28 seed Marcos, set to face Spain’s Albert Ramos in the first round.
Marcos finds himself in the second quarter of the draw; with a second-round meeting against Japan’s Tatsuma Ito or Australian John Millman should he advance. He is seeded to face World No. 4 and former Australian Open semi-finalist David Ferrer in the third round.
“You think about it, the first opponent for sure,” said Marcos. “I’ve looked as far as Ferrer in the third round, you see the first big name you have and kind of look until there. You start putting it in your mind and slowly, slowly you think about how to start to working on how to play Ramos.
“He's a lefty, he's a baseline player. I think he plays pretty well, can move well on court, he’s solid on the baseline. He will play his match. I just have to stay focussed and try to play the game I've been playing the last few tournaments. I think if I do that, I will have a good chance.”
Marcos continued his preparations for the Australian Open with a semi-final match against 2009 US Open champion Juan Martin del Potro at the AAMI Classic on Friday in Kooyong. Marcos fell 6-4, 6-1 to the No. 7-ranked del Potro, but will have the chance for one more match on Saturday, when he faces World No. 6 Tomas Berdych in the third place play-off.
“Honestly it was an OK first set,” said Marcos, assessing his performance against del Potro. “I didn’t play too bad. I had big problems with my serve. It was really windy and the percentage on my serve was not the way I wanted. It was so windy I lost concentration; you cannot find the way to win points and feel good on court.
“With Melbourne coming up I lost concentration and started thinking about other things. In the first set I had some good moments; I felt some good things, except the serve. If there is wind like today [when I play Berdych], I would like to work on my concentration, at least to stay focussed a bit more. But it was just an exhibition, nothing to worry about.”
Marcos will begin his campaign on Monday at Melbourne Park, with the exact schedule set to be released by 5pm Saturday.
Stay tuned to www.baghdatis.com for all the updates from Melbourne.
Go, Marcos!
