Photo: Ron C. Angle
Marcos made a confident start to his Odlum Brown Van Open campaign, dismissing American wild card and 2009 NCAA champion Devin Britton 6-4, 6-2 on Tuesday at the ATP Challenger Tour event in Vancouver, Canada.
“It’s not very easy to play against somebody you don’t know and he has nothing to lose, he’s just going for a lot of shots. So I’m pretty happy I found a way to win," said Marcos. "
"I came here to win matches, not to play good, so I’m happy I’m winning. That’s what I want to feel again and I’ll try to do it the whole week here.”
Despite facing a break point serving at 5-4 in the first set, strong serving from Marcos alleviated the danger as he held on to close out the one-set lead. An early break of serve in the second set established his dominance in the match and he quickly raced out to a 5-1 lead.
In the sixth game, dazzling play from Marcos – including a series of alternating lobs and drop volleys – brought the 2000-strong crowd to its feet in applause.
Marcos will return to centre court in second-round singles action on Wednesday, playing against Indian Prakash Amritraj in a first-time meeting beginning not before 6:30 p.m. local time.
See Wednesday’s order of play here.
Amritraj, son of Indian tennis legend Vijay Amritraj, has won just one ATP World Tour match this season as he has failed to re-discover the form that took him to his first ATP World Tour final in Newport last year. Last week, the 25 year old advanced to the final round of qualifying in Los Angeles and was a semi-finalist at ATP Challenger Tour events in Dallas, Texas in February and Rhodes, Greece in April.
Elsewhere, as he continues his climb back up the South African Airways 2009 ATP Rankings, Marcos has been speaking with www.canada.com about why he’s playing in Vancouver and his optimism for the future.
Check out the interview and feature here.
Stay tuned to www.baghdatis.com for all the latest on Marcos’ progress in Vancouver.
Go, Marcos!
