Tennis

Baghdatis beats Ljubicic in Zagreb final

(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-02-05 09:37

ZAGREB - Marcos Baghdatis upset Croatian top seed and home-crowd favourite Ivan Ljubicic 7-6 4-6 6-4 to win the Zagreb Open final on Sunday.

Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus returns a forehand against Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia during their final match of PBZ Zagreb Indoors ATP tennis tournament in Zagreb. Baghdatis won the 455,000-dollar Zagreb tournament by beating top seed and defending champion Ljubicic 7-6 (7/4), 4-6, 6-4. [AFP]

The second-seeded Cypriot, who earned his third career victory over Ljubicic, had to work hard for every point in the two-and-a-half-hour final. He saved three set points in the opener and won the set on a tie break.

Ljubicic, last year's winner here, broke Baghdatis to take a 3-2 lead in the second set and calmly held on to his serve to level the score.

The third set went with serve until the final game, when several errors by the Croatian gave Baghdatis his first tournament title this year.