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  • Wimbledon round 4: Baghdatis vs Lopez

    6/30/08 9:50 AM | Johan Lindahl
    - Baghdatis probably expected to be facing Nalbandian at this stage. Instead he's up against a familar face in the Wimbledon 2nd week, Feliciano Lopez, always a dangerous player on grass.

    At this stage last year Baghdatis backed up a 3rd round win over Nalbandian by edging a tight 3 setter against Davydenko. He didn't come into this year's championships with much confidence but has played himself into form, dropping just the one set so far and his second round 6-4, 6-4, 6-4 win over Johansson was particularly impressive.

    Lopez has gone one better than last year when he ended Henman's Wimbledon chances forever before getting outmuscled by the brute force of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the last 32. He's not had such an easy ride to this stage, Bobby Reynolds gave him quite a test on Friday before Lopez's experience on the big points enabled him to prevail 6-4, 7-5, 4-6, 6-4.

    He's made the quarters here once before back in 2005 when he beat Safin and Ancic before falling to Hewitt.

    Baghdatis' record at Wimbledon over the past 2 years undoubtedly makes him favourite for this. Its taken massive efforts from Nadal and Djokovic to stop him each time and you get the feeling it will take something similar to put him out of this year's tournament.

    They've played just the once before, in Dubai 2 years ago so the result doesn't have much bearing on Monday's match but Baghdatis won a close encounter 7-5 in the 3rd.

    Prediction: Baghdatis in 4.

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