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Australian qualifier for Wimbledon 2015, John Millman will play his second round match up against crowd favourite and former Wimbledon semi finalist, Cyprian Marcos Baghdatis in what should prove to be a closely fought match up.
Join The Roar for live scores from around 10pm (AEST) or following the Stosur vs Radwanksa match on court 12.
Millman pulled off what seemed like a miracle in his first round match up winning against 19th seed Tommy Robredo in straight sets. It was a brilliant performance from Millman and he never looked challenged by the more experience and seeded Robredo. A win like that in the first round will fill him with confidence leading up to the second round match against Badghdatis.
Baghdatis, meanwhile, came up against American Donald Young and as anticipated was able to easily move into the second round with a win coming in four sets.
At 27 years of age this is only Millman’s third gram slam. He has never played at Wimbledon, with his only grand slams being at the Australian Open in 2013 and then again this year. Both efforts, however, ended in a first round exit.
Millamn’s form leading to Wimbledon has been fairly solid. He only dropped two sets during the whole of qualifying however lost a game to fellow Australian Matthew Ebden at a challenger event before the qualification process for Wimbledon kicked off. It is interesting to note that Millman has a career winning percentage on grass of over 65% and he will be confident coming into this clash with Baghdatis.
Baghdatis meanwhile, as states above has made the semi finals before at Wimbledon however that came way back in 2006. Since that and a quarter final performance in 2007 his results have steadily eroded with a first round exit in 2013 split by a third and second round exit on either side of that. His best performance in any grand slam of course is a runner up effort at the 2006 Australian Open.
The man who was once ranked eighth in the world for men’s singles, now ranked 59th, has been solid but nothing special in the lead up to Wimbledon. Regardless, grass is pretty much in line with the rest of his career in terms of winning percentage, sitting at a tick over 60%.
The pair have faced off once before, coming in the USA last year at a challenger event. On that occasions John Millman, who was rightfully the outsider as he will be again for this match at Wimbledon took out the first set 6-2 before being 3-0 down in the second set Baghdatis retired. This really shouldn’t be looked into as Baghdatis was hurt and therefore wouldn’t have been performing at 100%.
A five-set encounter should also play into Baghdatis’ favour when experience if factored in.
The winner of this second-round match up will play the winner of 16th seed David Goffin and British qualifier Liam Broady, which will mean the draw is not getting any easier from this tough match.
Prediction: It is going to be a very interesting game. Millman has been in strong form having just knocked off Tommy Robredo, whilst Baghdatis hasn’t been in bad form either. Regardless Millman will be keen to advance to the third round and suspect he might in a five set epic.
Millman in five sets.
Join The Roar for live scores of this second round match up from around 10pm (AEST) and don’t forget to leave a comment if you’re following a long with the action!