Federer Ousted by Baghdatis

Roger's Feathers Get Ruffled

Indian Wells 2010, 3rd Round - Who would have thought - in fact, since the Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis had not beaten a top ten player since 2008, not many were keeping an eye on the third round match featuring the world number one Roger Federer vs. Marcos Baghdatis.

And at first, it didn't seem like they needed to. Federer won the first set handily, 7-5, doing just enough to get the break and hold on to it. The second set was more or less the same story, except that Roger's errors were starting to pile on. More unforced errors is never a good thing, even if your opponent sports a similar statistic.

Baghdatis Fends off 4 Match Points

At 7-5, 4-5, 15-40, with Marcos "BagDaddy" Baghdatis serving, it looked like the match was all but over and Federer would extend his winning streak over the Cypriot to 7 straight matches. But Marcos fought bac, and took the second set 7-5, leveling the match at one set a piece. The third set was more of the same, with Federer getting two more match points towards the end of the set, but again committing errors, and Baghdatis hung on to take it to a tiebreaker.

In the tiebreaker Federer committed 7 errors, and Marcos kept swinging away, until he grabbed the match with a 6-4 lead and two match points. It only took one. This is the first time Baghdatis has beaten a world #1 ranked player in his career - his previous best was world #3, Andy Roddick at the time. Roger, meanwhile, hadn't lost a match since holding match point since Rome in 2006.

This opens up the draw for many, including Roddick, who is in Federer's section of the draw. Stay tuned to Tales of Tennis for updates.