everything Roger Federer did right, the world's top-ranked player did
something wrong. Eventually, his errant shotmaking did him in.
Marcos Baghdatis upset Federer 5-7,
7-5, 7-6 (4) Tuesday night in the third round of the BNP Paribas Open,
beating the Swiss for the first time in seven meetings.
A joyous Baghdatis bent down and
kissed the court, having closed out the taut contest in which their
booming serves kept rallies brief and Federer wasted three match points.
"It's the best win of my career," he
said. "I lost a lot of matches against those top guys, and it's a relief
to win. It's a great moment for me."
Federer hadn't lost when holding a
match point since 2006 in Rome.
"Roger was a bit too aggressive. He
was missing a lot of balls," Baghdatis said. "I was more calm than him."
Federer lost for just the second time
in 13 matches this year in his first tournament since winning his 16th
Grand Slam title at the Australian Open in January.
He withdrew last month in Dubai
because of a lung infection.
"It's a very fine line. That's why I
don't like to beat myself up too much after a match like that," he said.
"You play good most of the time and then you don't play so well when
you really have to."
Federer held his third match point on
Baghdatis' serve in the 12th game, but he netted a backhand for deuce.
Baghdatis went up and then forced the tiebreaker when Federer mis-hit a
backhand return that sailed high in the air beyond the baseline.
"I just couldn't find the way to
win," he said. "I was maybe one shot away, maybe wrong choices at the
wrong time, maybe playing too passively."
Federer played some loose points in
the tiebreak, committing seven errors that included netting a forehand
volley to set up Baghdatis' first match point, which he won when
Federer's backhand return sailed long.
"I should never be in a breaker, so
why analyze the breaker?" said Federer, a three-time champion in Indian
Wells.
Baghdatis beat the No. 1-ranked
player for the first time in his career; his best previous win came
against Andy Roddick, ranked third at the time.
Injuries nagged Baghdatis through
much of 2008, then he worked his way back to the top 50 last year
through low-level Challenger tournaments in places like Pakistan.
"I said to myself that the chance
would come, and when it comes, I'll take it; that's what I did," he
said. "Through the experience of losing to [Novak] Djokovic in Dubai,
having chances and not taking them, remembering all the moments that I
had so many chances against these players and I didn't take them, today I
took it. So I'm very, very happy."
Federer's loss leaves the tournament
without its top seeds, with Svetlana Kuznetsova already knocked out on
the women's side.