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Crowd favourite Marcos Baghdatis from Cyprus kicks off another Wimbledon campaign when he takes on American Donald Young in what should prove to be an tough fought first round match up. Join The Roar from around 1:30am (AEST) following the Souza v Giraldo match for live scores.
Gone may be the glory days of Baghdatis when he made the semi-finals and quarter finals at Wimbledon two years in a row and was runner up at the Australian Open. However, he is still one of the favourites on the professional circuit of crowds everywhere and has kept his results respectable enough.
After making the third round in 2011 and 2012, he was knocked out in the first round of 2013 and then again in the second round of 2014.
Since the grass court season kicked off, Baghdatis has played in a number of tournaments at Manchester, Stuttgart and Nottingham. Whilst Stuttgart and Manchester threw up some worrying results, he managed to record some solid wins over the likes of David Ferrer and Simone Bolelli at Nottingham before having to retire in the semi-final which will worry him.
However, taking Rafael Nadal to three sets in Stuttgart and winning in straight sets against Ferrer and Bolelli shows he is in some good form coming into Wimbledon.
Young meanwhile, ranked 57th in the world (two spots ahead of Baghdatis), has had four cracks at Wimbledon being eliminated in the first round on each occasion, with a fourth round appearance at the US Open in 2011 his best Grand Slam result.
His form leading up to Wimbledon 2015 has been worrying at best, losing two from two games on grass against Borna Coric in Halle and Alexandr Dolgopolov in Nottingham. Both were winnable games for Young and he will be worried with how easily he was eliminated from both tournaments.
Despite a career winning percentage of almost 57%, Young only wins about 49% of his games on grass.
In some ways it is strange the pair have only faced off once in their careers, seeing as Baghdatis turned professional in 2003 and Young in 2004. Their one single match up came in the lead up to the 2011 US Open, with Young defeating Baghdatis in straight sets. This their second meeting sees Baghdatis go in as favourite according to the betting odds and it is hard to argue with that.
The winner of this clash is likely to face a tough second round match up with 19th seed Tommy Robredo who takes on Australian John Millman in his first round clash.
Prediction: It is just about impossible to predict a win for Young considering his history at Wimbledon and his recent grass court form. Baghdatis has plenty of experience at Wimbledon and as such should make his way into the second round with a rather convincing win over Young.
Baghdatis in four sets.
Join The Roar for live scores of this game from 1:30am (AEST) and don’t forget to leave a comment if you’re following along with the action!