Marcos will fine tune his game and get some much needed match practice ahead of the Australian Open at the AAMI Classic Kooyong 2009 exhibition event this week.
Marcos will play his first match against Swiss No. 2 Stanislas Wawrinka at 11am on Wednesday.
World No. 16 Wawrinka won their one previous meeting at the Pacific Life Open last year. The Swiss had a career-best season in 2008 - reaching the final of an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event for the first time in Rome (l. to Djokovic), winning a doubles gold medal at the Beijing Olympic Games and breaking into the Top 10 of the South African Airways ATP Rankings for the first time.
Last week Marcos opened his ATP World Tour 2009 campaign with a first round loss to Jarkko Nieminen at the Brisbane International. Afterwards he said that Kooyong would be the perfect place to get the necessary match practice before the Australian Open:
“That's why I choose to play there, because I'm sure I'm going to play two matches there. Even if you lose you get to play two matches, and also play two great matches because your opponents are going to be tough and that's good.”
Also featuring this week are Roger Federer, Carlos Moya, Marin Cilic, Fernando Verdasco, Ivan Ljubicic and Fernando Gonzalez.
Stay tuned to www.baghdatis.com for all the latest news on Marcos’ progress.
